What does your school require?

[back2thebooks]

For those who are pursuing an ADN degree:

Does your school require Pathophysiology, Medical Terminology, and/or Pharmacology?

I find it interesting that the curriculum is so varied between programs. My program, for instance, does not require these courses, but I know of other local programs that do (and interesting fact---the LVN program at my school DOES require pharmacology--but not the RN program).

I am considering taking one or more of the above mentioned courses anyway--I can only imagine them helping me?! Since I have a Bachelor's already, I only have a few pre-reqs left to complete--so it's not like I have a full courseload...yet!

[RNMom2010]

Our school only requires Pharm, and it is 1st semester. Patho is covered in our Med-Surg classes and Med Term is an elective class however the nursing faculty says that you will learn it as your classes progress. I have not had any problems thus far with not having taken the Med Term class.

[hiddencatRN, BSN, RN]

The program at my community college doesn't have specific courses for the nursing program- once you're done with the science prerequisites, you take Nursing 1, Nursing 2, etc. The one class however, includes lectures, lab work, clinicals, etc, so that info is covered, it just doesn't get its own course name.

[kalley]

Our 2 yr curriculum doesn't require any of the mentioned classes. We have Nursing Fundamentals, Med-Surg, Community/Childbearing or Community/Mental Health, Adv. Concepts Mental Health or Adv. Concepts Childbearing Family, and Nursing Trends and Issues. Other than that we just have the general academics, A&P I&II, MicroBio, English I&II, Algebra, Gen Psych, Wellness, and Human Growth & Dev.

There is an optional 3 yr curriculum that includes Med Term, Personal Development, Sociology, and Abnormal Psych.

I imagine that we will cover the mentioned topics through the nursing courses.

[sunray12]

The community colleges in my state have gen ed (pretty much covered if you have a Bachelor's degree), college math and gen science (A&P and chemistry) prereqs. You can only take pathophys and I think pharma if you're admitted to a health science program so those could not be a prereq. Med terminology is available for gen enrollment but it's not a prereq. I'm surprised reading this board to see how much schools in other states (regions) require when the coursework doesn't seem to be related to nursing but I think this is probably their way of keeping their applicant pools in check.

[benegesserit]

The school I am attending for my prereqs requires pharma and patho before entering the nursing program (since they have a multi-year waitlist, this seems a reasonable approach to me).

The school I will be attending for my ADN integrates the material into the curriculum (we have pharmacology and patho books on our required book list), but doesn't have them as separate classes.

[BellasMommyOBRN]

i know what you mean about the different nursing school's having different criteria for admission (which can make applying a pain! :) ). i know of one school that required you to take pharmacology and i ended up taking it since i figured it would help through nursing school. i don't mind taking extra classes that i feel will benefit myself, it also helps that i really like school :)

if anyone has the opportunity to take some extra classes i say go for it!

[benegesserit]

Yep, I chose to take patho and pharmacology, even though I didn't anticipate needing them, because I needed some classes to maintain full time status while applying, and figured that having a first pass at the material and keeping the A&P fresh in my mind would make things easier in the long run.

[back2thebooks]

Good point made---I'm sure some of my classes will cover these areas. I may just look into the pharmacology class as an additional option. Thanks, guys!