Which prereqs are the most relevant to nursing?

They are all relevant, in my opinion and in my experience. How you choose or don't choose to apply them is personal choice. What I'm saying is some nurses don't really apply the foundation that these courses apply to their everyday practice. I do. But I am an analytical nerd!

Statistics

Probably the least relevant to me. But it still comes in handy to be able to evaluate research claims.

Chemistry

Relevant if you want to really understand the mechanism of action of drugs and many aspects of human physiology.

Anatomy & Physiology 1+2

Totally relevant. You have to know the correct anatomical names just to be able to read doctors reports and to be able to do your own documentation. Having a good grasp of this subject allows me to really understand how I can best help a pt to heal.

Medical Microbio

I feel this is totally relevant because infection control is a major priority for nurses. Also, we learned a lot about the pathology of diseases causes by microbes in my micro class. So totally relevant, IMO.

Patho

I never took this. But I feel I have a decent grasp of pathophysiology because of all my course work and clinical work.

Nutrition

Relevant because if you understand nutrition, you can better teach the pt about how his food choices directly impact health.

Psych (Intro, Childhood, Lifespan, and Abnormal - all separate courses)

I've taken psych and a lifespan class. They helped me to be a better therapeutic communicator. They help me to see the world thru my patients eyes--whether he's a geriatric pt or an adolescent or a psych pt.

Intro to Professional Nursing

I never took this class. Maybe I took one like it in LVN school. Honestly the title sounds kind of fluffy, like my "fundamentals" class, in which basic stuff was reiterated to me. Maybe the class you're talking about is different.

Disclaimer: I made these statements based on my own experience. I'm a working *new grad* LVN but have taken all of these classes (and earned As in all of them except Stats and nutrition) before doing my LVN program because my goal was to earn my BSN.

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A&P II. Understanding how the body systems work. Strong foundation in this along with patho will allow you to truly "get" what you'll be taught in your actual nursing classes & clinicals.

All of them, really.

Stats- if you're in a BSN program, you'll have a research class, and understanding the research is much easier with a strong grasp on stats.

Chem- you'll want to understand metabolism and how meds work, and if you don't have a grasp on chem, this would be a HUGE challenge.

A&P- unless you get into ortho, you don't need to know every single little crevice of every bone, but I think it's fair to say that most of what you learn in these classes will come up at some point. You will really need to know, for example, the anatomy of the kidney to understand several disease processes.

Micro- well, many diseases are caused by microbes. If you want to know how to combat them, you need to know how they work and why one antibiotic works for pathogen X, but another doesn't, and why that one works for something else, but the first antibiotic doesn't work, etc. You'll also want to understand why infection control is so important.

Patho- again, learning disease processes. Kind of an important part of nursing! :)

Nutrition- you will have to know a lot of specific diets. Renal diets, carb counting for diabetic patients, foods with tyramine for patients taking MAOIs, foods for patients on coumadin, etc.

Psych- you'll have psych patients everywhere. Also, Erikson's developmental stages are very important when it comes to be NCLEX time.

Intro to Professional Nursing- I had fundamentals, I imagine this is the same. Teaches you how to think as a nurse and what's expected of you.

The best pre req is to develop good work ethics. Nursing encompasses many different areas and you will have to do things that you may feel is "below" you. Just like I remember nursing students ******** that classes were "pointless" to nursing. Not so. You learn to complete the task and in humility. I don't care what class it is you bust your butt to do it right. THAT will serve you best in nursing. You will have rude patients..you will have patients asking you to do things that are "below" you. You do it right and you work hard.

What part of "prerequisites" isn't clear to you?

All of them, of course.

Now, this may come as a surprise to you, as it does to many nursing students, that nursing school isn't like your previous education, or, for that matter, your high school classmates' college majors in English lit or history or whatever. Unlike them, you will not be taking the class, passing the exam, selling the books, and starting the next semester free to pretty much move on from the previous one.

In nursing school, by contrast, you will be held responsible for having a good working knowledge of all the material you learned in previous semesters, including prerequisites, and being able to apply it and build on it throughout your time in school. And, actually, after it.

So yes, when the nursing program says, "You have to learn this before you begin nursing classes," that's because they expect you to be able to apply it IN your nursing classes and clinicals.

I hope I didn't give the impression that I thought these courses were irrelevant or that I didn't understand that the nursing education is a staircase system, where each subsequent learning experience is grounded on an understanding of information from earlier courses. More accurately, when I asked which pre-reqs are the most relevant I wanted to know which cover the most frequently revisited topics so I could focus my studies on these courses as a whole, or on key details.

At my BSN program, the pre-reqs that I listed are taught in large lectures that are taken by students to fulfill requirements for a variety of majors, some outside the allied health sciences. My (possibly irrational) fear is that sometimes because of the broad scope of the class, they encompass or even go into detail on topics which are relevant to other degrees, but not so much nursing.

Anyways, these posts are driving something home for me: there are no shortcuts! I appreciate your perspectives :)

They are all relevant, in my opinion and in my experience. How you choose or don't choose to apply them is personal choice. What I'm saying is some nurses don't really apply the foundation that these courses apply to their everyday practice. I do. But I am an analytical nerd!

Statistics

Probably the least relevant to me. But it still comes in handy to be able to evaluate research claims.

Chemistry

Relevant if you want to really understand the mechanism of action of drugs and many aspects of human physiology.

Anatomy & Physiology 1+2

Totally relevant. You have to know the correct anatomical names just to be able to read doctors reports and to be able to do your own documentation. Having a good grasp of this subject allows me to really understand how I can best help a pt to heal.

Medical Microbio

I feel this is totally relevant because infection control is a major priority for nurses. Also, we learned a lot about the pathology of diseases causes by microbes in my micro class. So totally relevant, IMO.

Patho

I never took this. But I feel I have a decent grasp of pathophysiology because of all my course work and clinical work.

Nutrition

Relevant because if you understand nutrition, you can better teach the pt about how his food choices directly impact health.

Psych (Intro, Childhood, Lifespan, and Abnormal - all separate courses)

I've taken psych and a lifespan class. They helped me to be a better therapeutic communicator. They help me to see the world thru my patients eyes--whether he's a geriatric pt or an adolescent or a psych pt.

Intro to Professional Nursing

I never took this class. Maybe I took one like it in LVN school. Honestly the title sounds kind of fluffy, like my "fundamentals" class, in which basic stuff was reiterated to me. Maybe the class you're talking about is different.

Disclaimer: I made these statements based on my own experience. I'm a working *new grad* LVN but have taken all of these classes (and earned As in all of them except Stats and nutrition) before doing my LVN program because my goal was to earn my BSN.

]

Wait you went to nursing school and din't take patho?

OP, patho by far....then micro or chem. But nursing chem/micro are the baby versions of the real thing.

Wait you went to nursing school and din't take patho?.

I am an LVN. Pathophysiology was not a separate course, nor was it a prereq. I just finished all of my RN prereqs for the local community colleges as well as for the State university. No, pathophysiology is not a prereq for any of the 3 programs I'll be applying to.

Perhaps pathophysiology will be embedded into the actual programs requirements. Or perhaps pathophysiology will be a distinct course within the nursing program itself.

]

I am an LVN. Pathophysiology was not a separate course, nor was it a prereq. I just finished all of my RN prereqs for the local community colleges as well as for the State university. No, pathophysiology is not a prereq for any of the 3 programs I'll be applying to.

Perhaps pathophysiology will be embedded into the actual programs requirements. Or perhaps pathophysiology will be a distinct course within the nursing program itself.

]

Right. Some ADN programs do not include a pathophysiology course, but will cover relevant pathophysiological content in each specific nursing course (I should also note that RN-BSN programs typically require a pathophysiology course as part of the curriculum). BSN programs generally will include at least one dedicated pathophysiology course, sometimes as a prerequisite course, though always taken after anatomy and physiology I and II. The two ADN programs I applied to did not include a dedicated pathophysiology course, though the community college did have it available as a course. All of the BSN programs I applied to had a pathophysiology course, with one school asking for it as a prerequisite.

All of them, really. My program did not have an intro to nursing class, but all of the others are very relevant to nursing school. Stats is probably the one I use the least, as so far it has really only come into play when doing research papers. All of the others, particularly A&P, Patho, and chem, are needed to understand the content in every nursing class I have taken. Micro too, although slightly less than the others. Nutrition and psych will also help you in nursing classes, but are particularly good to have under your belt when you start clinical rotations.