What makes med-surg class seem hard to you?

[northmississippi]

Usually when someone says they are failing nursing,,the med-surg class always seems to be involved...what makes the class so hard?

[whichway]

To me, it's the combining of the pharm, patho and the next step in the critical thinking process. Fundanmentals taught assessment and what the nursing process is. Med-surg puts it all together. To me, med-surg is like running after taking a few first steps.

[northmississippi]

Would i benefit by taking patho before i take med-surg? My school has patho as part of medical information, but they are considering adding to to part of the RN course. I may can get in that class.

[ImThatGuy, BSN, RN]

I think people have trouble with it because they don't know how to answer the questions. You might have several right answers, and you have to pick the "most right." In reality, you may could do three of the answers all at the same time.

I generally make A's on my tests, and what I've learned is to put the answer that most fits that the teacher teaching that particular class...what she'd put. That said, if you get all of our teachers together they'll all pick a different answer. I've seen it more than a few times. It works if the teachers writes the questions or pulls it out of a text bank. It'll be something that clicks with her. I might not agree with an answer, but I put it and do well with it like I said. We do EOC Hesi tests, and I pick the most "nursey" answer on there, and I've done well on those too. You've just got to think like the test.

[~Mi Vida Loca~RN, ASN, RN]

Would i benefit by taking patho before i take med-surg? My school has patho as part of medical information, but they are considering adding to to part of the RN course. I may can get in that class.

If you are able to take patho before I would. A few of our students took it after the first med/surg class we had and they said they wished they would have taken it before.

[KristeyK]

My patho class was at the same time as med-surg. That being said, it wasn't the patho AT ALL for me. I let something as stupid as getting hung up on electrolyte balances throw me off the ENTIRE semester.

[JROregon, ASN, BSN, RN]

I'm with ImThatGuy. We have different instructors teaching each chunk of material. When I started thinking like the instructor, I started getting A's. It made it a lot easier to study. I would take my study notes and then go through the book to make sure I understood the concepts. Always know the clinical manifestations of the most common disease processes - know those signs and symptoms! And know the most common forms of treatment, including medications. Don't get caught up in memorizing the teeny tiny print in your book, focus on the italicized parts and do your best to understand the charts in your book. They are in there for a reason. I also found the tests to be a little easier when taking a patient with the same conditions we were studying. Nothing helps understand the processes of diabetes better than taking a patient who has diabetic ketoacidosis or HHS/HHNS.

[ggmugsy]

For me, patho is the background of Med-Surg. What's in the forefront of most test questions is, "As a nurse, what do I need to do for this patient?"

A good friend of mine is completely into patho and had taken an advanced pathology course prior to Med-Surg. She failed out because she was so focused on pathology, she wasn't thinking like a nurse.

My experience from the program I'm in is that the instructors want to see if you can do three things:

1. Can you be inundated with information and focus on what is REALLY important.

2. Can you prioritize what you need to do and manage your time to get it done.

3. Can you take what you've learned and think like a nurse? Can you apply your knowledge to your patient? (All while prioritizing and managing your time?)

Just my take on it . . .

[MN-Nurse, ASN, RN]

Usually when someone says they are failing nursing,,the med-surg class always seems to be involved...what makes the class so hard?

In my program it was the pace. A LOT of topics and information to cover in a short time. I spent more time studying for M/S than any other class - and I'm glad I did.

[seanieboy]

My college offered Pathophysiology as a separate course through the biology department and I wouldn't have trade a single thing from my patho class...it was amazing!!! I highly reccommed taking patho prior to start nursing school.

For example, learning diabetes from a biology teacher's stand point and then learning it from the nursing stand point definitely made it alot easier for me to learn everything overall. CHF also was made alot easier because I already understood the thought processes needed for my brain to learn right CHF versus left CHF very systemic CHF!!!

Good Luck!

[seanieboy]

Another piece of advice for those who want to take a different biology orientated patho class versus learning patho in nursing school.

In the biology orientated class: DO NOT THINK LIKE A NURSE THINK LIKE A NORMAL CELL IN THE BODY

Patho in nursing school: THINK LIKE A NURSE

you will learn the exact same information in both ways but point of view depending on the class matters greatly

My patho instructor prior to nursing school would always write on my exams "stop thinking like a nurse" lol

[ImThatGuy, BSN, RN]

I'd rather have taken a biology department pathophysiology as well. There's something to be said for a biologist teaching biology (pathophysiology)...then compare that to a nurse teaching biology. It just doesn't doesn't go over as well.