anyone else having a hard time with pharm or is it just me??

hodgieRN · Oct 29, 2012

CNS, oncology, and anesthetic have a lot areas. Try and learn the disease processes first. I learned what happens in a seizure, then I looked at what is used to stop or prevent it and WHY that medication stops or prevents it. Meds for parkinsons, epilepsy, dementia mainly block or enhance neurotransmitters or conduction. It's patho along with pharm. Know why a sudden stop of medication is bad based on what happens physiologically.

Next, try and group the medications based on the generic name b/c most of them have a similar base term. Dibucaine, lidocaine, benzocaine, tetracaine all cause numbness. Learn how they interact with the body. How do they cause numbness? What is happening on a cellular level in the neurons? Many of them have the same side effects, drug interactions, and mechanism of action. Where they vary is metabolism or elimination. Some may have a half life of 1 hr or 12 hrs. Know their classifications. Diazepam, midazolam, lorazepam, alprazolam are all benzodiazepines. They all have the same effects.

Know the difference between agonist, antigonist, anticholenergic, cholenergic, adreneric etc. Knowing what a beta2 agonist does can help you identify how a med reacts with the body. These terms close specify the mechanism of action and I was really bad a mixing up agonists or adrenergics b/c it all sounded the same. I zeroed in on the beta2 part and didn't play attention to whether it was blocked or enhanced, which I payed for on the exam.

With pain, understand how pain affects the body, especially in cancer pts. They don't care that morphine reduces pain. They want to know how opioids function in the brain. Why are some opioids not effective in cancer pts? Know how some act longer and why.

Next, study the tables in the book. It will list all the drugs together in one group. Stare at it. Identify the names and catch how they are similar. Almotriptan, frovatriptan, naratriptan, eletriptan, rizatriptan all end in triptan and all of them are selective serotonin receptor agonists. Most of these drugs are very similar minus a couple of specifications. If one of the listed drugs are different, make a note (sometimes they like throwing that curve ball).

They are mostly looking for use, mechanism of action, side effects, half life, or drug interactions. They love asking drug interactions. What med can you not take with grapefruit or what happens if these two are given together.

Study toxicity levels. What happens if someone takes too much of a tricyclic antidepressant? Some drug only work after a therapeutic levels is reached, but there are factors that can lead to toxicity. Renal failure, liver failure, infection can all lead to toxicity and the side effects become enhanced or dangerous.

Lastly, study the same things over and over. Give yourself tons of time before the test. Don't study 2 days before b/c it won't work. There's to more info.

On top of normal studying, dedicate every Sunday to studying your notes (for the week) as if you are taking an exam. Even though my next exam was 4 weeks away, I would have a mock cram section for the week. So when I had to take the real exam, I had already engrained it in my head 3 weeks ago. Then, I would constantly go back and review the same thing over and over until it was redundant.

Good luck!

ErinDel, ASN, BSN, RN · Oct 29, 2012

HodgieRN. Thank you a lot for the time spent on answering my post. I appreciate it. You have great ideas... I will try to study harder and keep those tips in mind. Thx!

hodgieRN · Oct 29, 2012

Anytime! Let me know of you need anymore help! The sunday cram was my best way to retain info. I swear by it!

SopranoKris, MSN, RN, NP · Oct 29, 2012

I find that if I make flash cards with the following information for each drug, it helps me remember them:

Drug name (generic & trade name)

Drug class (e.g. cholinergics, anticolinergics, catecholamines, etc.)

Therapeutic Use

Pharmacokinetics (e.g. Oral, IM, IV, etc.)

Adverse Effects

Contraindications/Cautions

Interactions (e.g. drug-drug, drug-food, etc.)

Nursing Implications

I do this for each drug and then categorize them by drug class. It helps to break them into smaller chunks & aid in memorization. For the PNS drugs, learn them by receptor type (Alpha1, Alpha2, Beta1, Beta2, Dopamine). Knowing how Parasympathetic & Sympathetic actions affect the body can greatly help you remember how the PNS drugs act in the body. You can make this into a chart.

Good luck on your Pharm test. I'm taking Pharm online because the face-to-face sessions conflicted with my other courses. I really wish I had a lecture to attend for Pharm. It's difficult material to absorb and there's so much you are forced to learn in a short period of time!

BlueEyedGuy · Oct 29, 2012

Pharm was the most I've studied for individual tests ever (until adult health, hehe). I used to study 8 hours a day starting 3-5 days before the tests, 25-40 hours for a pharm exam (I think we had 3 exams and a final).

I think studying effectively for pharm is the hardest part. I feel like learning the drug by class is most important. To do this, you pick a prototype drug for each class of drug you need to learn, make a drug cards like SopranoKris said (if that works for you), and make a brief list of the drugs in that class (to familiarize yourself with them). You don't have to memorize EVERYTHING if you know the drug endings (suffixes), but I'd get a good 'feel' for everything. If you're going to make flash cards, I'd make them for drug endings, and exceptions; you can't answer a question about a drug if you can't recognize what it is.

Personally, I didn't use drug cards that much (takes too long), I printed the outlines for the textbook from the Evolve website. We used Lehne 7th edition, and the notes were really good. I'd just read those (over and over), highlight them, makes notes on them, write mneunomics in the margins, and read that section of the book if I didn't get it. Then I'd go through our lecture powerpoints to cross-check everything with what the instructor covered. Using this method I always had first or second highest grade in the class, and nearly a level 3 ATI score at the end of the semester.

ErinDel, ASN, BSN, RN · Oct 29, 2012

Thanks guys for all your help.. I am sitting now trying to go through my powerpoints. My book is useless, it is so far over our heads so I don't use it. I read the ATI book which sometimes helps. I feel the med list is so long for cns and pns. Our other teachers didn't even tell us what pain meds to go by and which cancer drugs to focus on.. I will try my best and use the tips you guys gave me. Thx.