November 13, 2004
A: FROM MENTOR SIDDIKA PASI IN NJ
Engineering curriculum at best teaches you problem solving. You learn a lot
of theories in engineering school and some of which you might not use in
real life. But taking these classes will expose you to a variety of
scenarios were problem solving in essential. Engineering will condition you
to properly formulate problems, devise different approaches to solving it
and applying it to find the real solution. As far as how Engineering
applies to nursing is that it will help you understand some phenomena in the
human body. For example, study of Fluid Mechanics can help you understand
blood flow in human arteries and so forth. So you can never go wrong with
taking an engineering class because it will teach you essential knowledge
and skill you will need in nursing.
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A: FROM MENTOR JOAN LUSK IN RI
Being neither an engineer nor a nurse, I feel fully qualified to
answer this one! I know from being a teacher that one of the biggest
hurdles for students of medical science (nursing included) is
translating real-world problems expressed in words into equations
expressed in math. (Patients don't tell you their problem as an
equation - they have a possibly incoherent set of symptoms and
complaints that you have to make sense of.) An engineering course in
high school, I would hope, would familiarize you with that vital step
in solving all sorts of problems, and the skill would transfer to
physiology and biochemistry and the technical background for nursing.
The skill would transfer to any sort of scientific problem solving;
and you might find that you could enjoy and succeed at a wider
variety of fields.

If you know the course has a good teacher, if you have or would learn
the math background, and if taking doesn't prevent you from taking
something more important to you, why not go for it?