Neesie Posted January 31, 2011 Share Posted January 31, 2011 I started the paramedic program a couple of weeks ago and have been trying to fight through the required reading of A&P....I seriously am thinking I am stupid! Is it just me or is this really hard? I am doing the chemistry and cells part and not sure how to dumb it down. Any suggestions? Is there a website with A&P for dummies? lol Neesie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bieber Posted January 31, 2011 Share Posted January 31, 2011 Couple of questions. Did your paramedic program require you to take A&P as a prerequisite for paramedic school? If not, it's going to be all new material for you and shame on them for not requiring that at the very least. Anatomy and physiology is a tough subject that requires a lot of tedious studying and rote memorization, like all of medicine. My best advice to you is to take advantage of all the materials available to you; go to the library or bookstore and pick up a book on A&P, preferably one with interactive CDs if visual aids work best for you. A simple google search will turn up loads of information on anatomy and physiology, but to be honest there's no substitute for a fully dedicated A&P class. If you have any specific questions relating to A&P there are tons of very bright people on these boards that will be happy to explain them for you. Good luck in paramedic school. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dera Posted January 31, 2011 Share Posted January 31, 2011 Learning A&P is a stepwise process. Nailing down anatomy is a matter of memorization. There are tricks to memorizing, but it still boils down to just KNOWING the bones, the muscles, the nerves, blood vessels, etc. Physiology can also be memorized, partly. Physiology requires understanding the anatomy first, the function(s) second, the process for the function(s) third, and the result of proper and improper function. Physiology starts at the simple and progresses to the difficult. Where are you having problems, specifically? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mobey Posted January 31, 2011 Share Posted January 31, 2011 Neesie You are totally correct! It is very hard, especially when you have been out of school for a few years. My suggestion is to hit up youtube and other websites to find some online lectures, that is how I got through it. The above info is correct: it is all memorization. Feel free to contact me if you hit a wall, and with some review, I may be able to help you through it on the phone or something. Good luck girl! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kndoug1 Posted February 1, 2011 Share Posted February 1, 2011 Like everyone else has said, A&P is a difficult subject. When I took it in college, my instructor suggested using a CD called Physio Ex as well as My A&P lab...I think you can find them at any local college bookstore or any place such as Borders or Barnes and Noble. They are interactive CDs that have exercises for learning the anatomy as well as simulations and concept maps for the physiology stuff. It gives great visual aids on how the hormones and medications work on the body as well as dissections of the human body. I found them extremely helpful. There are also tons of coloring and excercise books by Pearson that I found at the local book stores, and those really helped me. If you are into study guides, I have found that anything by Pearson have been the most helpful, but that's just a personal preference. Last, if you are just looking for something to simplify the information as you start out, there is a textbook called "Essentials of Human Anatomy&Physiology" by Elaine N. Marieb, 7th edition. It comes with an interactive CD. We used it in my high school A&P class and really simplified everything. I reffered back to it through out my college A&P class when I needed the information simplified so I could understand the basics of any given concept, and then I was able to go to the big text book and really understand the information. Good luck and just memorize, memorize, memorize! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kiwiology Posted February 1, 2011 Share Posted February 1, 2011 (edited) Cells and tissues are the hardest part of A&P or so I found, chemistry is completely seperate and should not be included as part since it is a different subject. Are you doing a proper A&P course like ours (which is the same one all other health disclipines have to do) or one of those week long deals for washed up firemonkeys that would barely qualify as generating enough thought to fire up a neuron? Edited February 1, 2011 by kiwimedic Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Happiness Posted February 1, 2011 Share Posted February 1, 2011 Actually there is a book called A&P for dummies Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FireMedic65 Posted February 1, 2011 Share Posted February 1, 2011 A&P is difficult, especially when it's built into a paramedic course. Things go quick and they are hardly touched upon. There is so much detail that you have to go over and commit to memory. In medic programs you usually spend a couple classes on it then that's it. Which I do not agree with because of the same reason you are having issues with. I struggled with it as well when I went through medic school. Now, I am taking proper A&P classes and I completely understand things A LOT better now than I ever did. My advice is to get a book outside the medic material and study that. Learn the basics and go from there. READ READ READ READ! It's hard bur not impossible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chbare Posted February 1, 2011 Share Posted February 1, 2011 Cells and tissues are the hardest part of A&P or so I found, chemistry is completely seperate and should not be included as part since it is a different subject. Are you doing a proper A&P course like ours (which is the same one all other health disclipines have to do) or one of those week long deals for washed up firemonkeys that would barely qualify as generating enough thought to fire up a neuron? Unfortunately, chemistry underpins the fundamental concepts of anatomy and physiology. One pitfall is the fact that we try to look at these science courses in a vacuum. I dare say that somebody who had already had some chemistry and is fairly well versed in rudimentary concepts of chemistry would typically do better in A&P and perhaps take home additional knowledge and understanding that would otherwise be too foreign to learn. OP, if you can give us more specific answers and answer some of the questions posed, we may be able to steer you in the proper direction. Resources such as Khan Academy are always a consideration. I am not too proud to admit I have used Khan Academy at least a time or two when confronted with a difficult problem involving trigonometric functions I was not familiar with and other concepts that I probably should have learned in high school. Take care, chbare. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
emtannie Posted February 1, 2011 Share Posted February 1, 2011 Did your paramedic program require you to take A&P as a prerequisite for paramedic school? If not, it's going to be all new material for you and shame on them for not requiring that at the very least. I am in the same program, just a year ahead of Neesie. Many programs do require A&P as a prerequisite. This program does not, but it is also a longer term program to allow for that. The program offered by this college is one of the toughest in this province, mostly because the didactic portion is done on line and distance learning, and you spend several weeks on campus every few months to do labs and skills work. There is a great deal of self-notivation required. Before anyone hacks this program to bits, part of the reason I chose it was because it fit into my schedule, and partly because it has an incredibly good pass rate with the provincial registry exam, which a number of the other colleges do not. Now, that being said, I can relate to Neesie on this one... A&P is difficult, and it is the foundation that a number of other courses depends on. Knowing how cells work, and then being able to explain how a drug enters or affects a cell is hugely important. If only I haad known how important acid-base balance was when I took university chem a hundred years ago, I would have paid more attention! Neesie, some things I did to assist me through the course were: - I bought the Anatomy and Physiology coloring book, and worked on the pages of areas that I was struggling with - I also subscribed to a site called audible.com, and downloaded the audio version of the A&P text. The downloaded version is like a Coles notes (or Cliffs notes, for those of you in the US), where each chapter is summarized into a short version, and then there are review questions.... I downloaded it to my iPod and every time I was in my car, I listened to it. That was a huge help to me, as wading through hundreds of pages in the text overwhelmed me sometimes. - there is a website called www.purposegames.com. If you go to that site, and search "anatomy" a number of simple quizzes come up... from "name the skeletal bones" to "name the bones of the skull" to "name the parts of the brain" to "put together the parts of the kidney".... it seems mindless, but it is a nice change from just reading, and is just a different way of testing your knowledge. You can do it! Annie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts