What do you wish you had a better foundation of in prep for Nursing School?

racing-mom4, BSN, RN · Mar 15, 2008

Believe it or not my school did not require it, but I wish I would have taken a medical terminology class. Some of our transfer students took it and they had an advantage because of it, yet we had to take 3 psych type classes. Psychology-Sociology and Human Growth and Development. Med term could have replaced one of those!!!!

mauxtav8r · Mar 15, 2008

I agree about the language thing. I read the Latin/Greek bases book for the med-term class that was offered for pre-med majors. Helped immensely.

JB2007, ASN, RN · Mar 15, 2008

Do you work as a CNA or Tech? I worked as a CNA for several years in a nursing home before starting classes for my RN. I feel that this background helped me a lot with my 1st couple of nursing classes and I was not afraid of my patients. This also help me become familar with some of the medical language. After my first couple of nursing classes I worked as a nurse extern at the hospital and I picked up a lot that helped me with both my classwork and clinicals. Granted I like to ask a lot of questions and go into rooms to help with procedures if time allowed. As far as classes go: Know your A&P. If you know the body systems and how they all work together it will help a lot. I hope this helps you.

Music in My Heart · Mar 15, 2008

I'm in the first semester of an accelerated program and here's my perspective:

1) Physiology - Make sure you conduct an extensive review before you start because that's the foundational science.

2) A basic review of anatomy. Get clear about circulation and where are the major visceral organs. Also get clear about your basic directional terms.

3) The basic math from chemistry - how to convert between various units of measure, the concepts of mass, volume, concentration, molarity, and molality. The basics of dilutions and aqueous solutions. Fewer than 1/3 our class passed our first med-math test

4) Basics of medical terminology is helpful but you pick it up on the fly, too.

5) A CNA class is worth doing. Our state requires 100 clinical hours and that seemed to be sufficient.

6) Pathophysiology - I find the depth in our program to be insufficient and I wish had taken this class before I started.

Hotflashn · Mar 16, 2008

I am concerned about that too. I have already forgotten so much and didn't even realize it. The nearby CC offers a nursing foundations/ nursing success class that reviews A&P, nursing math, mini-med terminology, study tips, etc. I might take that credit/no-credit this summer if offered or if I don't get in anywhere for fall.

I agree that Med Term is a great class to have if you haven't, or a CNA or EMT course if you don't have any medical background. But what do I know, I haven't gotten into NS! Maybe post over in the NS Student forum, those members are in the thick of it and will know for sure.

MikeyJ, RN · Mar 17, 2008

I am not sure if a better foundation in anything would necessarily be beneficial.

Nursing school is not conceptually difficult -- in fact, there is very little about nursing school that is difficult (content wise). However, the style of testing makes nursing school difficult. "NCLEX-style" questions are what cause most students the most stress -- not the content they are studying.

And most of your classes focus on teaching you 'nursing interventions' and 'medical management'. There really are not many pre-nursing classes you can take that will help you in those arenas.

In response to what others have said: medical terminology has helped me very little, my anatomy and pathophysiology classes have obviously helped me immensely (but those are required classes for nursing school), medical math would probably be a waste of tuition because math you use in nursing school is basic algebra and conversions, and becoming a CNA would probably not give you that much of a boost ahead of the others in your class. Being a CNA would definitely help you become more comfortable with patient contact but would definitely not help you when it comes time for exams.