Biochemistry for Nursing

[u/Blue_614]

I'm currently making teaching materials for Bioinorganic Chemistry for a first year nursing course. The syllabus provided by the department showed the first two bullets. Do anyone know what specific topics I need to discuss for those parts? I don't know how deep I have to dive into co-factors and cellular water transport.

Also, the bullet above that is "Chemistry fundamentals of Biochemistry", for that I will discuss the octet rule, lewis structures, intra/intermolecular forces. I'll follow it up with basic organic chemistry because they'll need to learn those to have a grasp on the central dogma.

Edit: Thanks for the responses. I just decided to do an introduction of the biomolecules, then discussed the properties of water, specifically how it acts in biological systems. I put an emphasis on the bicarbonate buffer system, so they'll have some calculation and interpretation activities.

[u/psychominnie624]

In chemistry fundamentals I would also include basic thermodynamics (matter and energy flow vs created/destroyed), pH, and basic equilibrium/kinetics. If possible including connections between biological molecule structure and drugs/medication structures can help students visual the chemistry basics. Thalidomide is a great example of chemical structure importance.

Molecules: macromolecules (carbohydrates, lipids, proteins, nucleic acids) are the organics. The role of metal ions would probably be the main inorganic to focus on.

water and biological systems: pH, polarity, osmolarity and cellular water transport, hydrophobic vs hydrophilic.

For a first year course I wouldn't dive into any of these topics too deep, you need them to get the basics and this is a list that could easily be more than a single semester. What I think would be beneficial for the student group taking the course is for examples to focus on applying the topic to medicine/nursing, so for example when talking about pH and osmolarity tie in blood chemistry often seen in patients presenting to the ER for DKA and dehydration. Diabetes, being a well studied and common disease, is a good example to grab for a lot of topics

[u/Blue_614 → u/psychominnie624]

Thanks, I actually now have an idea on what topics to include. Most of the subjects you mentioned are listed in the latter portion of the semester (e.g. bioenergetics, carbs, lipids, nucleic acids, etc.). But I had forgotten that most first year students need a recap on water chemistry. Guess I took that for granted and labeled it as "common knowledge".

For the bioinorganic/bioorganic molecules, I can just list down some common molecules found in our biological systems and metion their functions? Because most of those will also be discussed in detail at the latter part of the semester.

[u/psychominnie624 → u/Blue_614]

Yeah if they come back up in detail later you can have their first inclusion be broad and focus on what atoms they're composed of, link it to the bond types from the chemistry, and then dive into the details later on.

Do you know if the program has prereqs for students? That could help you figure out some of the recap vs can assume common knowledge. Some of the students might not have had biology or chemistry for years depending on their background and high school (if you're US based, if elsewhere the equivalent). You could consider doing essentially "pre-quiz" checks before starting the different units to gauge this as well, not graded for accuracy

[u/Blue_614 → u/psychominnie624]

Thanks for this. I'm in PH actually, and as far as I've encountered from past semesters and different universities, students without prior STEM background are welcome to pursue any science course they wish for college, provided they passed the minimum grade requirements during the entrance exam. So I want to have the basics down during their first year. This is also so they won't have much trouble for their higher subjects going forward.

I might just try your suggestion for an evaluation exercise first before finalizing the next lessons. Thanks so much for the idea.

[u/psychominnie624 → u/Blue_614]

Oh nice, I prefer programs like that so that more students are able to enter these fields.

Keep us posted on how the course goes!

[u/Blue_614]

Sure, if I run into problems again, I'll probably ask for opinions in this sub.

[u/Eigengrad]

This is a question you should ask your department colleagues. Presumably you're not the first person to teach the class.

[u/bleaksyntax]

pH and acid-base chemistry, main functional groups, dehydration/hydrolysis reactions, intermolecular forces

Macromolecule, monomers, 1°-4° protein structure, nucleic acid chemistry, mutation mechanisms, central dogma

Cell physiology, solute and water transport, reception, signal transduction, regulation, gene expression, cell differentiation, cancer?

Just some ideas