What do nurses really need to know?

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Hello all,

I am starting my nursing program in February and have been out of school for two years. I have already taken anatomy/physiology but it has been a while so I plan to review. What do I really need to know? Someone told me that reviewing physiology is most important and knowing all the bones/tissue isn't really a big deal but I want more opinions on what I should brush up on(give me some topics). I'll be taking pathophysiology during my first semester, will this be a very important class to keep in the back of my mind?

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While I am not yet a nursing student, from what I know it is all important. Yes, I would agree that physiology is the most important because if you don't understand what is normal how can you understand what is abnormal? However, bones are important too because you use some of them as landmarks for things such as IM injections. I would review all the systems and how each one works to be prepared. Good luck!

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In my opinion bones and tissues are not really as important to study before nursing school, as in knowing the names of them, you will learn the landmarks when you do injections. Spend your time looking at the anatomy and physiology of the systems, especially cardiac and renal (they seem to be the hardest for most to grasp in my opinion). That should be your main focus; having a strong understanding of a&p is essential in nursing school as you will not be going over the material again and will be expected to know it. For example you will start to learn about arrhythmias, therefore you must already know how the heart normally works into the cellular level in order to understand your nursing material.

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It is all important.

Learn as much as you can in nursing school. It will make the rest of your education easier and you'll actually understand what your preceptors/experience coworkers/docs/PT/OT folks are talking about when you're in practice.

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As you get into pathophysiology you will realize it is all important. To what detail is it important is the thing, though.

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