I just finished up my last prereq for nursing school and up until the very last two weeks, I loved my Anatomy & Physiology class. My professor authored the text book so was constantly making edits and taking suggestions from her students on how to make the book more user-friendly. She even offered extra credit points to students who found typos which meant they usually spent more time looking for mistakes than learning about their body parts.

After a grueling chapter on blood vessels, I was thrilled to be finally studying something I knew a thing or two about -- the reproductive system. I opened to the first page of the chapter and there it was...text superimposed over a picture of an embryo in a women's uterus. "Pregnancy is a sequence of events that begins with fertilization, proceeds to implantation, embryonic development, and fetal development, and normally ends with birth about 38 weeks later, or 40 weeks after the last menstrual period."

I read the statement again convinced that I was misunderstanding it. My professor couldn't possibly be providing INACCURATE information to the next generation of health care providers. I read on and after making it through a dozen or so pages on the male reproductive system, I came to the first of 50 pages on the female reproductive system. I flipped right to the subject heading "fertilization" and again read. This time she was using the term fertilization and pregnancy interchangably!

So what is it that's got me all up in arms -- so much so that I've willingly opened my textbook (let alone actually read through it again) after vowing to never look at a textbook again...EVER...or at least until I start nursing school next month..?

Let's be clear here...the medically ACCURATE definition of a pregnancy as defined by reputable medical associations such as the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) and the American Medical Association is "once a fertilized egg has been implanted into the uterus."

Textbooks are not the place to voice your personal morals and beliefs. So, when I respectfully pointed this inaccuracy out to my professor, I assumed she'd give me my extra credit points and I'd be along my merry way. Nope. Not the case. This was her email to me:

"I don't doubt you know what you are talking about. You do have the experience in this field. Textbook publishing companies must attempt to include a broader definition that takes into consideration the current social flexibility about when life actually begins, when we have a living entity. It's a touchy subject, obviously, but for now, the text's definition is consistent with five other major A&P authors."

So come to find out, there are five other major A&P authors who are using the same definition...and now that she mentioned it (I was trying to leave my personal beliefs out of it) -- what about taking into consideration my thoughts on where life begins? As a future nurse, I'm simply asking for my professors to teach medically accurate information -- this IS afterall the information I'm passing on to my patients.

The worst part of it all is that the definition of pregnancy was included on the final exam...I purposely chose the "wrong" answer: "Pregnancy begins once a fertilized egg has been implanted into the uterus." I ended up getting a B in the class, just two points away from an A. It was worth it. Besides, I already got into nursing school and if all goes well, I'll be a nurse in 2011...and this is where I'll be able to make the biggest difference.