What's important in pathphys??

Unfortunately there is no easy way out of pathophysiology, you need to know it all!

If you are taking care of a cardiac pt, cardiac is important.

If you are taking care of a neuro pt, neuro is important.

If you are taking care of a resp. pt, resp. is important.

If you are taking care of a diabetic pt, endocrine is important.

Get it? It's all important!

You need to know it all. That's why they make you take it.

It is impt. to learn differences between the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system. Meds act on one or the other. When you know which system the med is acting on you will know what to expect as a side effect or desired outcome, etc.

Sorry for the bad news, but everyting is important.........one system is dependant on the next so study everything.

you gotta learn it all for a reason

You need a solid understanding not only of pathophysiology but also anatomy and pharmacology to be able to provide care to patients. Especially in today's world where patients are much sicker with multiple comorbidities when they are hospitalized.

You need to LEARN it all not MEMORIZE it all. Basically, we need a solid understanding of the anatomy and funtion of all body systems.

Example: A diabetic patient has more than one systems involvement, endocine, renal, cardiad, integumentary, neuro etc...

I agree with the other posters. I don't think I've seen a patient yet with just one thing wrong with them, and most of their problems are interdependant.

Focusing only on a couple of systems would be pointless. You have to look at the whole.

Hi again,

Thank you all for your responses. I think in my enthusiasm at finding a forum where nurses were open to supporting and sharing their opions with each other, I have miscommunicated the intent of my question. So, here's another go at it.

I am a 1st year student in nursing. I am involved in producing on-line learning modules for post secondary education. My current project involves pathphys for nursing. As I have yet to cover the subject area, I turned to the web and others in the profession for their opinion. So, here's my rephrase....

In your experience, what areas of pathphys have been the hardest to understand or could be improved upon in the way that it is taught? What I am trying to identify is the areas that could benefit from a multimedia approach. I agree that if there is a multimedia (or any other method of teaching) all subject areas are important. However in this intial stage of the project our goal is to tackle the areas that are hardest first and once a structure has been set up the rest will follow.

I hope this clarifies my query. Thus far, nurses (instructors and new grads) that I have spoken to have identified cardio (and reading leads), endocrine, and neuro as areas that they felt is not well taught or could benefit from an interactive multimedia approach.

Thanks again,

Mingus.