Advanced Pathophysiology Guidance
The following information is designed to help students taking Advanced Pathophysiology in the DNP program at Palm Beach Atlantic University,
I am no longer teaching the course, but I designed it, so here are some things you should know.
Textbook
The course was designed for Robbins Basic Pathology, also known as “Baby Robbins.” This book is remarkably small considering what is inside it. They mainly did that by leaving out a large amount of basic anatomy and physiology. The book assumes that you have taken a medical physiology course, so be aware that not everything is in the textbook. I try to address this as much as possible within the online lectures, however, if you have been out of school for a while, I highly recommend listening to my lectures for undergraduate Pathophysiology and Pharmacology I and 2 in the areas that you difficulty with.
The textbook is also set up strictly by system, not by disease. So if a disease affects multiple systems, the book will describe that disease’s impact on each system within that system’s chapter. This means that you may need to flip to multiple chapters to get a full understanding of a disease’s impact.
I chose Baby Robbins instead of the full Robbins and Cotran Pathologic Basis for Disease based on feedback from Physicians, Medical Students, and Nurse Practitioners. The consensus is that Baby Robbins is all you need. However, there are some overachievers who want additional details, and the full book will work perfectly fine with the course, although the chapters will not line up.
Lectures
If you’ve never taken one of my courses before, I use the textbook as a supplemental resource with the primary resource being my lectures. In fact, you never have to read the book to pass the tests, except in the places where I tell you to in the lecture. The tests are taken straight from the lectures. When students tell me they’re spending 20 hours a week on Advanced Patho alone, they’re inevitably trying to read the whole book. Listen to the lectures. Listen to them twice. Then use the book to fill in the gaps. It shouldn’t take you more than 6 hours a week TOPS.
It also helps if you listen to the lectures sped up. For technical material (like this course) I recommend a default speed of 1.5x for the first run through the material.
I guess it would be helpful if I gave you all the lectures, huh? Advanced Pathophysiology Lectures in mp3 format (zipped).
For some reason, the program I used to zip them used a non-standard format, so if you have trouble unzipping the files, try using 7 Zip in Windows or Keka for MacOS.
The tests come STRAIGHT FROM THE STUDY QUESTIONS!!!!!!
Here’s how I wrote the tests.
- Look at study question number 1. Ask myself, “How can I turn this into a multiple choice question?” If it lends itself to four or more questions, it might get turned into a matching question.
- Rinse and repeat for subsequent questions.
So when you listen to the lectures and study, have the study questions in front of you. Answer them in your own words as you listen to the lectures. Then when you study for the test, you’ll already have your study guide completed.
Link to Advanced Pathophysiology Review Questions
The course starts hard and gets easier
Be aware that due to the nature of the material, the first test covers mostly general pathological processes, often at a cellular, molecular, or genetic level. As a result, the first test is the hardest in the course. The last test is actually the easiest test (IMO).
Enjoy the course. You’ll be a smarter person at the end of it.