You Don't Really Need Chemistry For Nursing, Do You?

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Hi! I'm a senior in high school in New York. I plan to go to school for pre-nursing in the fall of 2017. I have taken dual enrollment in general biology I and II. I am currently finishing up a dual enrollment General Chemistry I class.

I recently got a bad grade on a test and midterm in my current General Chemistry class. I hoped to have at least an A- in the class, but it doesn't look like it will happen. The test grades will most likely take my grade down to a B+.

I didn't do very well in my previous classes either; the teacher was horrible and screwed us over. Kids in the top 5% of the class were scoring 50s and 60s out of 100 on the finals -- it was that bad. Because of that, I only have B's in both general biology classes.

I'm worried that the B's and B+'s will look bad on transcripts to employers and grad schools. I know they're only general education classes, but Bs are Bs and will also bring my GPA down. Even then, aren't general education courses supposed to be of higher grades since they are considered more accessible? (My college GPA is already at 3.45 because of the two Bs in biology)

Is general chemistry I & II vital for nursing?

Do employers care? Do prestige graduate schools care?

Should I take General Chemistry II even if I risk another B+ or worse?

[berdawn, ASN]

If it is possible, take an introductory chemistry class--you have time, so use it to really learn and understand the subject matter. I took two courses before the required one and ended up with As in each, including the one that was necessary.

[Extra Pickles]

Since there are many answers to the question, Do I Need to Take Chemistry? I'll go with the OP's question about whether employers or grad schools care about her high school grades. The simple answer is NO, and why would they?

Your high school grades will get you to the next step, college. Your college grades will matter to some employers, but not all, and will matter to graduate schools.

Get the best high school grades to get the best shot at getting into a decent college program. It's not your high school grades that will be considered when looking to get into a nursing program though it will be your college prerequisite course grades that matter. If you are already talking about college courses you are taking now (that part isn't clear), then those grades DO matter. You will take whatever is needed by whatever school you hope to get into; that's just how it works. Good luck.

[LessValuableNinja]

I believe dual enrollment means OP is getting college credit for them, in which case they will matter to grad school and some employers. The nurse residency programs around here look at GPA, but I am unsure if that is true everywhere. When you apply to nurse programs, they'll also likely be looked at, depending on admission grading for that program (some only look at prereqs, some look at everything).

[Workitinurfava, BSN, RN]

I feel the chemistry part applies to nursing in the way of understanding the reactions of medications.

[AngelKissed857, BSN, RN]

You need to talk to a college counselor about prerequisite requirements to understand what you need to accomplish. Ahmed, yes, you seriously need Chemistry to be a nurse!

[AngelKissed857, BSN, RN]

You need to talk to a college counselor about prerequisite requirements to understand what you need to accomplish. And yes, you seriously need Chemistry to be a nurse!

[MeMyself-n-I]

Two words "KHAN ACADEMY" Free unlimited tutoring, hint, Google is your friend. ?

[ItsThatJenGirl, CNA]

I keep coming back to this question in my mind. Everything that happens in our bodies is a chemical reaction. Your muscle moving, blood clotting, or breathing occurs because of chemical reactions. So yes, of course, you need chemistry to be a nurse.

[tyvin, BSN, RN]

I was required to do organic, inorganic, and biochemistry. I was a late bloomer, so that no school creds could be used. I wish I had taken chemistry before I took nutrition. I had to sit up at night teaching myself chemistry for nutrition lessons. When I got around to chemistry, it was a breeze. I took the nutrition first because I thought how hard could a nutrition course be

There were 40 students in my class at the start of the nutrition course. When the dust cleared, we were 15, learning the hard way. I did triple time in that class simply because I didn't understand the chemistry concepts. The Internet had just come out, so there was no YouTube, Khan Academy, etc. I kept asking myself why the counselor I talked to about my schedule didn't warn me. After that little experience, I was cautious about scheduling classes.

That was decades ago. I feel fortunate to have been in a program that required both. OHSU 95.

[Apple-Core, ASN, BSN, RN]

Many nursing programs require a minimum of high school-level chemistry, so the answer is most likely the program you apply for will require chemistry.

However, if you mean do nurses USE chemistry in their line of work, the answer is yes. Medicines, drugs, potential drug interactions, understanding of the chemical changes and general chemical reactions in the human body, dosage calculations (OK, that's math too, but recognizing errors because of O/D potential boils down to an OD of chemicals).

Finally, if you are being rhetorical, my answer would be if your program required credit in bakery and sewing, you do it. Period, and there is no picking and choosing where prereqs are concerned.

Good luck to you!

[gere7404, BSN, RN]

There's some chemistry involved in nursing, but it's not complicated. The bicarbonate buffer system/acid-base balances come to mind.

[pmabraham, BSN, RN]

I recently graduated from R.N. school at the literal top of my class, where the only chemistry I had was in high school back in 1980/1981. There was not a single nursing concept that required a current working or theoretical knowledge of chemistry. No single nursing school exam question required a current functional or theoretical understanding of chemistry. Furthermore, no NCLEX-RN board question required a current working or theoretical knowledge of chemistry.

So while I believe it to be true that this is fluff subject matter unless one is going to be a chemist or going to design/manufacture medicine or be in related fields where one needs to know chemistry in depth, for better or worse, schools have the right to have it as a prerequisite/requirement. God willing, this coming March 1st, I start my R.N. to BSN to MSN at WGU, and I will be required to take pass biochemistry (for which I have yet to find anyone who is taking the current biochem class at WGU under the new format which is jumping for joy happy for having to take it -- even just mildly delighted).

P.S. On subject matters like buffering systems, we learned from nursing book texts (vs. having to have remembered a single thing from chemistry); what mattered was understanding the concepts vs. the nitty gritty.