Pharmacology - how hard is it?

PacoUSA, BSN, RN · Apr 2, 2013

Two students in the calss before us who just took their nclex stopped in to tell the teachers Hi and that they passed the test (one passed one didn't) and they just told us that the nclex only gave drug trade/brand names, not chemical/generic names on the test. It made me very depressed because I have been learning drug classes and suffexes like lol, pril, pine, etc, and the trade names are all different- no way to get a grasp on that! Anyone know anything about this???[/quote']
On my NCLEX, I had like 2 pharm questions, one that I did not know at all and I just purely guessed at the answer. The other was about Lasix. There are not that many pharm questions on the NCLEX so I would not sweat it. It's not gonna make or break you. I still passed.

RLtinker, LPN · Apr 3, 2013

I think this is one of the things that depends on the school and teacher. Our basic Pharm was 16 weeks and consisted of the first 8 chapters of the Pharm book. Now here is the stupid part, adv. pharm was an eight week class and we covered the last chapters, 9-59 of the pharm book. The only drugs we were responsible for were the prototype drugs of each class, the number of which varied from chapter to chapter. What we need to know about each drug wasn't always clear. Usually we where given, the class, indication, action, route, onset, peak, duration, and side effects of each drug as part of the lecture, any other key points or nursing consideration required reading the chapter. But as far as I know we all survived and passed the class, and you can to. It just takes a little bit of work.

justashooter · Apr 3, 2013

sounds like it is now easier than when i took it.

kristiesin · Apr 14, 2013

Our Pharm course was taught with Dosage, so if you were good at math, it would help your pharm grade, and if you were good at pharm, but not so good at Dosage, then that would help your score. We had to learn classifications, adverse effects, nursing interventions, patient/family teaching and action. We are taking our oral med lab/pass next week and have an oral test out for clinical for 11 meds. I found pharm to be my most challenging course this semester. I got a 94 in the class and that was with a MAJOR effort and a great deal of studying. I enjoyed dosage and that helped my grade a good deal.

As most posters said, it is a great deal of memorization, orginization of information and application of the classifications. When you learn Diuretics, think about what they are for, what kinds of side effects would you expect, and what would you want to make sure you did or didn't do while assessing and or administering them.. That will guide what you teach the patient, and help you remember the really important stuff.

Our instructor always tells us to remember to think about.. "why are they getting this drug? What is the concept? What are the most common side effects?" That helps me in my study to apply it.

Take Opiods... why are they getting it? Usually moderate to severe pain.. say an 8,9 or 10 out of 10. What is the concept? opiods have a strong effect on the CNS and cause respiratory depression.. so what would you do? ASSESS their respirations (VITALS) and allergies before administering the drug.. and then MONITOR the patient carefully. What are the most common side effects? respiratory depression, drowsiness, dizziness... etc... so what would I tell the patient.. USE caution.. do not double your dose, if you are having any trouble breathing, get care asap. etc... after I have those things down.. then I start to pick apart the classification of what is out of the norm.. is there a synthetic? what drug has many uses? Is there a common drug.. what is the most prescribed and why.. then you can understand them and not just hope you remember all the information... It takes a good chunk of time and study.. but if you know them, you will feel much better about passing meds.

LoriRNCM, ADN, ASN, RN · Aug 8, 2013

Sooo nervous about pharm. Interesting how some posters said it wasn't hard and some said it was a nightmare! :eek: Everything is subjective. I will definitely concentrate on studying the classes of drugs instead of the individual names of drugs, except for the most common ones. Thanks for the tips! I'm more worried about pharm than I was A & P!!!! :nailbiting:

student forever · Aug 9, 2013

After the first test I realized that very little actually had to do with the individual names of drugs, but more about the concepts. After that I did not bother with memorization of names of individual drugs, and just read the chapters very well to grasp the concepts of the drug classifications such as cancer, heart, etc... I got an A so far, so it has worked for me.

If you have the kind of teacher that drills names, then that will not help on that score. Drugs can come and go, but the concepts of what drugs do to the body systems will never change. That is where I would place the most time and effort.