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Anatomy or Pharmacology?


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I have not been accepted yet, but I am preparing myself as though I will be starting in the Fall of 2012.:wink: I was shadowing a PA and some of her advice was to take a basic pharmacology course before PA school starts so that I have a base and it will be a little easier during that portion of the program. But I also had anatomy over 6 years ago and feel that it would be wise to brush back up on this as well. Anatomy is a prereq to the schools I applied to, Pharmacology was not. If you could only choose one what should it be? Any current or past students have any insight on this? Thanks.

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current student here...anatomy.

 

Will a pharm class help? Yes. Will that section be helpful in school? Yes. But that is only one small section of the big picture. Anatomy is used in EVERY aspect of medicine. Be it talking of baterialstatic versus bacterialcidal and what part of the cellular metabolism a particular chemical works upon, or where in the body things are happening..distal tubual, proximal tubual, venules, which section of the GI tract contains which particular cells which secret which particular enzyme/hormone, when a patient presents with this sort of neural deficit, which part of the CNS is affected, what part of the PNS is affected when you see this sort of sign in your patient...having all that stuff dialed in tight where you don't have to think about it will save you precious brain power throughout your entire course.

 

Your PA that you are shadowing...what is their background? Did they find chemistry hard and A&P easy in the pre reqs? Are you of a similar mindset? What is a burden for one person may be a breeze for another person.

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Anatomy would look better if it's a pre-req, but I would lean toward pharm personally. Undergrad anatomy is such a small part of graduate anatomy that it's probably not worth your time in the long run (since you've already taken it). Pharm is new, and pharm is hard. I really wish I had taken an undergrad pharm class before PA school.

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I have already applied so neither class will be added to the application. I just want to take one of them to be better prepared for the program.

 

In that case, which one do you feel you need the most? Can you brush up on your A&P without taking a class? Do you feel like you need the formal instruction of a Pharm class? Also, are there any pre-req's for the Pharm class that would stop you from taking the Pharm class in time to start PA School?

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No matter what Pharm will be incredibly difficult. I had 8+ years experience in medicine prior to PA school, and did medication reconciliations on a daily basis, and we even had a former pharm rep in my class, and its still hard. and in the whole grand scheme of things, you will memorize pharm for tests, and then forget 99% of it until clinical rotations where you see it applied and then it makes sense. Anatomy is definately more important in the whole big picture of medicine and will help you excel overall. The people with the best grasp on anatomy definately did better overall in my class.

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Anatomy is important but if you got a good grade the first time you took it then you could take a pharmocology class and just buy an a & p book and review it on your spare time. or if you take a&p you could get a book from barnes & noble and kinda self teach yourself pharmocology. That way you get both. I had a really crappy a&p teacher so if I get in then I am going to review my boyfriend's a&p book before the program starts with him.

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