Best Techniques to study Pharmacology for nursing

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I am currently in Pharmacology and just finished my nursing informatics class today. I'm not sure if it is was because I was studying both classes or not but I seem to be having problems with Pharmacology. I read the chapters and skim over and over, read the lecture notes, practice questions, flashcards etc. but I seem to be missing something. I only have 3 more exams and and a final to increase my grade. Can anyone give me any advice on additional things I can do to help me retain this information. I'm hoping now that I do not have the other class and back to back tests I will do better but still any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thank You :)

Specializes in Emergency Department.

Man do I need I need help in Pharm. I am in Pharm 1 now in my nursing program and I am failing by 3 points. We only have 2 test and a final in this Pharm which I think is asinine but hey I'm just a student so what do I know. It's still doable for me but I need to score a low 80 from 75 questions. Pharmacology seems so hard. I am going to try to see if I can break it down into sections the way some of you have suggested, thanks for the incite.

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Pharmacology sucks... I am grateful this wasn't an actual class, but incorporated into my entire program. I am not sure what advice to give you because the majority of it is memorization/repetition... Try breaking them down into classes and work from there. At least with a disease process, I could make educated guess through questions. Even licensed rns keep medication books lying around.

Try adderall or some **** like that... So many people in my program were on brain steroids. I feel cheated... I am kidding. Have a nice day.

Your tips are excellent! Thanks!

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Ooops, wrong post. Sorry. ?

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An advice for you and everyone else reading. You can spend countless hours studying pharm, there is no way you can really know all of info that are in the drug books because of all the other things nursing school makes you do. As I encountered each med, I made an excel document and started clumping everything together as far as classes, drugs associated with the classes (Write down there generic and brand name because NCLEX only uses generic names), and all of the information school and clinicals require from me such as vitals to watch for, labs, common/severe side effects and nursing considerations. At first can be a lot to do and very tedious but by the end of nursing school and studying for the NCLEX you'll be glad you did.

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Can you share your excel documents that you have?

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For some reason I am not able to print out your documents? Do you know what I could be doing wrong? By the way, thank you for sharing! These are a great deal of help. ?

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Specializes in Surgical Critical Care.

Pharm was a class where a study group was indispensable for me. For each category of drugs, my classmates and I would pick out a day (usually during the weekend) and dedicate it to pharm. We would sit around and take turns coming up with our own mnemonics -- silly stuff based on inside jokes, our instructors, people in our class, TV shows... anything! They didn't always make sense, but we would always remember them ... and I still do to this day!

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