Pharmacology Before Med-Surg. How To Prepare?

[EAGirl]

Hello,

I am currently taking pharmacology this summer. I decided to take it this summer because I didn't want to have it run concurrently with psych and med surg. How can I prepare for Med-Surg while in pharm? I've already started categorizing diseases and disorders using Saunders and Med Surg made incredibly easy alongside the medications.

[verene, MSN]

Honestly I would think by focusing in pharmacology and really getting to know your medications, medication classes, common dosages, and both common and life-threatening/severe side effects. Try pairing medications with the pathology they treat and learn how the medications and pathology and physiology work together. The more you can build up this knowledge and pair these areas together the greater base you have for developing clinical judgement, and anticipating medication related issues in your future patients.

[EAGirl]

Honestly I would think by focusing in pharmacology and really getting to know your medications, medication classes, common dosages, and both common and life-threatening/severe side effects. Try pairing medications with the pathology they treat and learn how the medications and pathology and physiology work together. The more you can build up this knowledge and pair these areas together the greater base you have for developing clinical judgement, and anticipating medication related issues in your future patients.

Thank you for responding! Yes I have bought a pathophysiology book and that's the first thing I write on the note sheets I create. It's a shame that we don't have to take patho, I feel like every NS program should have that course. Plus our med surg class is only 8 weeks, so that's another reason why I started writing the disease processes and disorders that correlates with the systems we're going over. It makes things a heck of a lot easier.

Thanks again!

[verene, MSN]

Thank you for responding! Yes I have bought a pathophysiology book and that's the first thing I write on the note sheets I create. It's a shame that we don't have to take patho, I feel like every NS program should have that course. Plus our med surg class is only 8 weeks, so that's another reason why I started writing the disease processes and disorders that correlates with the systems we're going over. It makes things a heck of a lot easier.

Thanks again!

I find it insane you don't have to take a pathophysiology course. I'm pretty sure that is a required part of the curriculum for all nursing schools in my state.

My program is set up such that first term we don't interact with patients at all and are really focused on learning the health theory, motivational interviewing, comprehensive physical assessment, pharmacology and pathophysiology. Pharm and patho really form the foundation for every other course we take including clinicals.

I think working from the patho book will definitely help you see the bigger picture. For learning pharmacology it really helped to learn each class of drugs and the uses/side effects of the class as a whole. It is then much easier to memorize one or two differences unique to a specific drug in the class. Any means of clustering medications mentally is good be it by class or by use or by side effect (e.g. all hepatotoxic drugs, or all drugs that require blood tests because of narrow therapeutic range) it can help you remember key details. Also my instructor was a big proponent of teaching others as a way of deepening knowledge: pretend to explain a medication to a patient - what would they need or want to know? How would you explain this medication to a child or to an adult for whom English is a second language? How would that conversation differ from explaining the medication to fellow RN? I found forming a small study group where we could all teach one another about the medications really helpful. Having to explain something in detail to some one else really helps to cement knowledge.

It sounds like your program makes the process more challenging by how it is structured by you seem to have strong motivation to learn independently. Good luck!

[EAGirl]

I think working from the patho book will definitely help you see the bigger picture. For learning pharmacology it really helped to learn each class of drugs and the uses/side effects of the class as a whole. It is then much easier to memorize one or two differences unique to a specific drug in the class. Any means of clustering medications mentally is good be it by class or by use or by side effect (e.g. all hepatotoxic drugs, or all drugs that require blood tests because of narrow therapeutic range) it can help you remember key details. Also my instructor was a big proponent of teaching others as a way of deepening knowledge: pretend to explain a medication to a patient - what would they need or want to know? How would you explain this medication to a child or to an adult for whom English is a second language? How would that conversation differ from explaining the medication to fellow RN? I found forming a small study group where we could all teach one another about the medications really helpful. Having to explain something in detail to some one else really helps to cement knowledge.

It sounds like your program makes the process more challenging by how it is structured by you seem to have strong motivation to learn independently. Good luck!

Yes our school allowed us to interact with patients but we had to get the information first and then go home and "google" yes "google" it before we could take care of the client.

I really needed that "teaching for learning" confirmation! It really helps you retain so much information.

Thank you!

[Kuriin, BSN, RN]

Weird...isn't pathophysiology required for nursing programs? I'm assuming you get the patho in your didactic lectures for medsurg, psych, etc.

[EAGirl]

Weird...isn't pathophysiology required for nursing programs? I'm assuming you get the patho in your didactic lectures for medsurg, psych, etc.

I'm not sure if it's in the actual class since I haven't taken it yet but Med surg 1 is only 8 weeks and we have to take a HESI afterwards. If we don't pass the HESI, we don't pass the course. So I have to kind of learn independently if I want to pass that thing. I had to do the same for the fundamentals HESI.

[Kuriin, BSN, RN]

So it sounds like they are teaching you pathophysiology as well. That's a lot of information in 8 weeks. We had two pathophysio classes in addition to our rotation specific didactic lectures.

[EAGirl]

So it sounds like they are teaching you pathophysiology as well. That's a lot of information in 8 weeks. We had two pathophysio classes in addition to our rotation specific didactic lectures.

I hope they are but if they don't I'll be prepared!

Thanks again!