How important to nursing is studying chemistry....?

Question

I've recently gone back to school to finish my nursing degree and a lot of the students, even the older students that have had prior college courses, keep complaining about the amount of chemistry that we need to know...I'm all for learning in college...and I know that learning chemistry is important, but their arguement is that "Everything is done by computer!" I was an Army EMT, so I guess that doing and knowing things at a basic level is vital because you never know what to expect...but I was just wondering from all of the health care workers out there...just to prove my point...at a personal level...How important to nursing is studying chemistry and knowing how to calculate meds...thank you for any input...Diana

Answer 1

There are many facts and principles you need to know in chemistry which could help a nurse to understand the aspects related to it in the practice of such profession. So I am going to say that chemistry is important in nursing. The medications and solutions, specimen,and many things need your understanding in its chemistry and not to know means you will put yourself into compromise at the cost of the patient's life. Nursing is not a joke. Yes ,computers seem to do everything this days and that helps a lot. But can you assure the safety of what you are doing by using computers yet not understanding what you are doing? You see, chemistry is quite a tough subject which I suggest being modified for nursing studies covering only the basics and the releavant aspects. But whatever, a nurse should have the understanding of chemistry as it has role in nursing profession thus makes it important in nursing studies. Nurses won't work like robots anyway, and I hope nurses will not make such thing to happen.

Answer 2

Semi-Constant Gardner hit the nail squarely on the head. Chemistry is extremely important to Nursing. In addition to needing to understand biochemistry, taking and understanding chemistry helps to teach you to think in a certain way that nurses need to think. It's okay that it isn't coming easy to you this very moment. What is important is what you do from this day forward. It was very difficult for me as well. But I used a couple of tutors to help drill it into me. I still made only a B+, but I made it by working my **** off. Another thing to think about is that many schools do some sort of 'scoring' before they accept you into their nursing program. My school, for example, had some key courses for which they added up your GPA, and only the top scorers got into the program. They only had room to take 36 new students every quarter, but had an average of 300 hopefuls each of those quarters. So I recommend checking with your intended college EARLY and discovering their nursing program entrance requirements. Then beat yourself silly until you have it all down. I got all A's and A-'s, except that B+ in chemistry - and that B+ had me just sliding in under the wire to get into the program. Sounds really tough? It is. Once you make it into the program though, you will likely feel better about yourself than you ever have. I and all my nursing classmates knew we could kick the programs ****, and we did. Once in the program, you will find yourself busier than you ever thought imagined. Makes sense, since you will only have two (if you go ADN) years to be ready to have people's lives in your hands. But again, the personal rewards are absolutely incredible. I am a 47 y.o. male who went back to school in his early forties. Believe me, if I can do it, you can as well. You only need the passion and the drive. Find those tutors. Make friends with the chemistry geeks, lol. Believe me, people who 'get' something love to show off by helping others. Sending you good thoughts... DC :)

Answer 3

I'm not a nurse, so you can delete me if you like. But when my son was born, he had some complications and he was immediately taken into the Neonatal ICU (NICU), where he was immediately surrounded by a crew of hyper-competent nurses discussing proportions of drugs, possible cross-reactions, etc. I suppose they weren't balancing chemical formulas, but I can guarantee you that they knew their stuff and that they had to know chemistry to ever be able to truly understand what they were talking about.

My guess is that nursing is like anything else: you can be mediocre by just skating through the hard stuff. But if you want to be excellent (those NICU nurses have my eternal respect and gratitude), you have to embrace difficulty.

Good luck with your career as a nurse. I hope you can always remember what an important job it is (or at least can be).

Answer 4

I have a little different perspective as a paramedic. We don't have pumps in the back of the box that figure our doses and what not for us. We are probably one of the last health care professionals that still actively figure dosing by hand. I normally do it on a pillow case. From what I've seen in the ER, nurses generally use the pumps or charts to figure a dosage, but I still think it is something that you need to know. What happens if power is lost? There is always the chance that you will have to figure these things by hand. It's not useless knowledge, but at the same time, it is probably not something you will need for your everyday work.

Answer 5

You will need to know a little bit of chemistry, and it also really depends on what area you're going into. However, you have to know how the body's chemistry works with the meds. Nothing in nursing school is ever pointless in learning.

Answer 6

Chemistry is one of those things that you need to know through school but you will not be using it as a nurse! Good luck! Its tough!

Answer 7

It is extremely important. You have to know how certain chemical react with each other, how solutions are comprised, how to calculate weights and measures, etc.

Answer 8

i very rarely have to even think of chemistry. as far as calculations......... even less so, drugs come form pharmacy already to be adminstered. however it does help to know your drugs, once had a MD order a lethal dose of vanco, when he meant to say rocephin