Pharmacology: Which Drugs?!

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Specializes in CNA.

For those of you who made drug cards, which drugs did you focus on?

As of now, I am focusing on Classes..anticoagulants, antihypertensive, antihistamines, NSAIDS, etc.

I hear others who make drug cards for individual drugs and then list its class.

Obiouvlsy I cannot make a card for every single drug in my drug guide, so how should I focus my drug cards?

I know "to each their own" and it depends on the learning style in class, but just curious which do you think is most beneficial?

Thanks in advance.

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They sell premade cards in a box, check out the format. Hope this helps.

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Our instructor gave us a list of "important" drugs for each module. It's unclear to me how they were selected as they definitely were not just the "prototypes" from our textbook(s). I suspect they were a combination of prototypes and "frequently prescribed" drugs (as determined by her experience).

I think you are on the right track with looking at drug classes first. (Some pre-printed drug card sets actually have "class" cards too!) Focusing on prototypes for each class is another good way to go. We were able to choose between multiple recommended texts for our pharm class and the two books that I looked at had a prototype (or "best example") drug for each class. The book went to great lengths to describe each of the prototypes in a number of categories, then for other drugs in the same class, there were shorter descriptions that "simply" told you how each of the other drugs were different from the prototype for the class. ("Simply" sometimes was a very long list of differences!)

Depending on why you are making drug cards, you may or may not find pre-printed cards to be useful. My program allows us to use pre-printed cards (apparently some do not) and at first I tried making my own, thinking that the process of deciding what to include and what to not include, along with the physical act of making them would help me learn the drugs. However, I was writing a "page from your drug book" style of card and was doing 20 or so drugs at a time which meant a LOT of information getting speed written onto cards. By the time I was done with all 20, it was a confusing mismash of info in my brain and I hadn't really learned anything. In the end, I opted to purchase a brand of drug cards that were "page from your drug book" style and spend all of the time that I had been using to read/write cards to actually start learning the material.

There are a number of downsides to pre-printed cards including that most sets are missing at least a few common drugs, they're often on flimsy card stock, they may be on "cards" that are too big to be easily portable without mangling them and so on. However, I still feel they saved me some significant time and were a worthwhile investment for my particular situation.

If you decide you might be interested in purchasing cards, try to go see them in person at a bookstore and don't be shy about asking the staff to let you look inside the box and having them re-shrinkwrap when you're done. Seeing the cards in person (along with reading online reviews) let me narrow down my choices to just 2 sets and I ended up being happy with them (Mosby and MediQuik -- I bought one and my friend bought the other).

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Specializes in Oncology.

I made so many drug cards and honestly I rarely looked at them past the exam where they were tested. A few important ones: insulins, steroids, lasix, anti-biotics, and most cardiac drugs including beta blockers and nitro. Psychiatric meds are also good to know and can be studied by class easily.

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Specializes in LTC, OB/GYN, Primary Care.
For those of you who made drug cards, which drugs did you focus on?

As of now, I am focusing on Classes..anticoagulants, antihypertensive, antihistamines, NSAIDS, etc.

I hear others who make drug cards for individual drugs and then list its class.

Obiouvlsy I cannot make a card for every single drug in my drug guide, so how should I focus my drug cards?

I know "to each their own" and it depends on the learning style in class, but just curious which do you think is most beneficial?

Thanks in advance.

Are you in clinicals right now? You will see the same common drugs in med pass over & over again. It would be most helpfull to you to become familiar with these drugs first. I went by drug then listed classification etc.. Its best to have a practical working knowledge of the drug instead of memorizing a bunch of words if that makes sense. I used to work in a pharmacy and we have a "top movers" section of most used drugs which encompassed maintenance meds, atb's, pain meds etc. I'm sure you could google most used meds to come up with a similar list.

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NurseHopefulInOH said:
I'm sure you could Google most used meds to come up with a similar list.

You could look at the Kaplan NCLEX Drug cards. I think they have 300 drugs that Kaplan has identified as most useful to know. (You can preview the list of drug by going to Amazon and clicking the "look inside" link which shows the "table of contents" listing all of the 300 drugs.

I'd be interested to hear if anyone else has other ideas for identifying "most commonly prescribed" or "top movers" drugs.

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We are taught to learn our drugs by classes. It is easier overall. Also, you learn that many drugs in the same class have the same endings lol for betablockers, pril for ACE inhibitors and so on. Most drugs in each class tend to have similar interventions, teachings, etc. Not always but in general. Then, at test time, if you can't remember the specific drug you may remember something about the class of the drug and find the correct answer! :)

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Specializes in Med/Surg.

Our clinical instructors handed us a printed list of meds we needed to make drug cards on, the beginning of the semester. Depending on what subject we were going over in class, I'd focus on those.

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Specializes in ER & ICU.

When you start working around the hospitals you will see certain drugs used over and over then you can focus on those and then look up any odd ones that come along. I'm doing a summer extern at a nearby hospital that is what I have done.

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Specializes in Critical Care, ED, Cath lab, CTPAC,Trauma.

https://allnurses.com/pharmacology-flashcards-drug-cards-t394218/

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Specializes in ER & ICU.

That is awesome :)

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