What are your textbooks like??

[IcySageNurse]

Hello all!

Pre-NP Student here. I'm excited to attend NP school soon, but I'm worried about curriculum/rigor, etc. I was wondering what the textbooks are like, specifically for the more science/medical classes. Are the patho and pharm books higher level graduate textbooks, similar or the same as medical school texts?

I saw one program where students used undergrad pharm books...yikes.

[ryguyRN]

That is very common actually for the Patho or Pharm book to be similar to the undergrad books. They are just covered in more depth and breadth in grad classes. If you want more in depth science go to medical school, this is nursing.

[BostonFNP, APRN]

My program used a mixture of medical texts and APN-specific texts. No APN program should be using undergrad texts.

[BostonFNP, APRN]

That is very common actually for the Patho or Pharm book to be similar to the undergrad books. They are just covered in more depth and breadth in grad classes. If you want more in depth science go to medical school this is nursing.[/quote']

That is not acceptable; I have never heard of a program doing this if yours did, then they need major changes.

[NJprisonrn]

We use both medical and NP specific texts (Bates Guide to Physical Exam, Cecil essentials of Medicine, Primary Care, etc). All of the books are quite in depth, and so are the lectures. My patho and pharm teacher goes into DEEP detail. I feel like I'm getting a great education. Sometimes I use my undergrad books to look certain things up, but not often.

[JMart83]

We use a mix of books specifically for NPs and medical textbooks. They're definitely more in depth than any sort of text I used at the same university in undergrad.

[IcySageNurse]

That is very common actually for the Patho or Pharm book to be similar to the undergrad books. They are just covered in more depth and breadth in grad classes. If you want more in depth science go to medical school, this is nursing.

That's a sad attitude - do you look down on your own profession that much?? And from what other NPs are saying, your example is actually uncommon..

[BostonFNP, APRN]

That's a sad attitude - do you look down on your own profession that much?? And from what other NPs are saying, your example is actually uncommon..

I wonder if this poster has been through NP school.

[ryguyRN]

I can only speak from my own program but have heard of other programs using these for their patho and pharm classes. Pharmacology for Nursing Care by R. Lehen and Pathophysiology: The Biologic Basis for Disease in Adults and Children by K. McCance. In my other classes yes, we have used a book specific to NP school, Advanced Practice Nursing: An Integrative Approach by Hamric and Spross ( I rarely opened).

In my NP program the minimum sciences needed was Chem I and II, I have taken O.Chem, Biochem and Physics I and II but that didn't matter. And I don't look down on Nursing, I just know there is a difference between academic content in both professions. I think NPs should be required to take O.Chem, Biochem and Physics.

And from the original post she is obviously not in NP school, or why else would she be asking.

[Corey Narry, MSN, RN, NP]

You can use any reference book for Patho and Pharm. The thing with text books is that they lag behind in terms of new evidence as new research comes out. Understanding of disease process and their histopathologic manifestations can be found in any basic medical science text. Pharmacokinetics and Pharmacodynamics can be found in any Pharm text as well.

In NP school, the emphasis should be on teaching what current evidence in research says regarding various pharmaceuticals and in what context of illness and treatment option they should be used. For example, any text can explain what happens with HTN and what the mechanism of action of thiazides, CCB's, ACEI's, ARB's, etc. are. But one should be taught to refer to the latest JNC recommendations on agent selection based on compelling indications.

Same with other conditions such as COPD, asthma, CAD...there are national treatment guidelines for many conditions and that is what should be taught in NP school which textbooks would not necessarily be up to date on.

And just as an aside, our ACNP program used various texts from Harrison's Internal Medicine to Marino's ICU Book.

[soycubiche]

wow wow