Fall 2012 - Pharmacology

Nursing Students Pre-Nursing

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Anyone out there taking Pharmacology this semester? Want to start a support group? I ended up having to take Pharm online because the only time slots offered conflicted with my Physiology & Microbiology courses. I've never taken an online class before, so this is going to be very new for me.

How many books did you have to purchase for Pharm? We had 4 required text books and 2 recommended :eek: However, the good news is that we will use them again in the Nursing program, so it's a good investment. (We'll use them for the first 3 semesters of the Nursing program...yay!)

I was astounded at how large the main textbook is. It's bigger than my Physiology and Microbiology books combined!!! I forsee lots of math in our future :D

What about you?? Let's hear it :)

Specializes in Inpatient Obstetrics.

Oh that is awesome!! I am glad that those classes can count points towards your admission! Pharmacology is starting to kick my butt with all the reading!

I even had a dream last night that I took my first exam and ended up with an 18!! I failed with an 18!!! Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhh!! It was horrible!!

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Specializes in Hospitalist Medicine.

OMG...I hate those kind of stress dreams!! Don't worry, you've been studying, you're prepared. Just tell yourself that you KNOW this :)

Had to take the first of our pass/fail pharm math tests yesterday. My laptop froze up in the middle of the exam! :eek: Luckily, I was able to get the Help Desk to prove that it was a technical failure and they allowed the exam to be re-set and I was able to complete it start to finish. We have to get a 90% or better on the math to pass, otherwise, it's a fail. Got a 96% (missed 1 question)...whew! I was stressing so much about that first one.

I'm sick of looking at my Pharm book because there's so much reading!!!!

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Specializes in Hospitalist Medicine.

Good news! Our professor discovered that there was a system glitch with the way the system graded our Unit I exam. After she manually reviewed our tests, I ended up with an A instead of a B...woo hoo!!! I'm so relieved :D

Unit II is definitely easier to absorb than Unit I. How did your exam go?

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Specializes in Inpatient Obstetrics.

Oh that's good!! Woo hoo!! I've been so busy keeping up with all the reading!! Bad thing is that I just realized that we were suppose to be doing some online quizzes after reading each chapter. Ugh!! At least I have two weeks to do the 30 some quizzes I need to do >.

I'm still freaking out on how to study for the test!! Aaaaaahhh!!

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Specializes in Hospitalist Medicine.

OMG...30 quizzes??? :eek:

Yeah, the reading is what kills me. It's just so time consuming!!! Plus, trying to memorize all the different drugs (NSAIDs, insulin, antibiotics, glucocorticoids & antivirals so far), just blows my brain apart. I've been making flashcards for each drug and writing down the Mechanism of Action, Therapeutic Use, Contraindications/Cautions, Side Effects & Nursing Implications for each one. That has helped. However, it's still just a LOT to memorize.

We have a reading quiz every week. I feel like once I read & take the quiz, I've forgotten everything! Our test is next week. I did the ungraded practice test and got 100%. Then I took the graded practice test and missed a question!!! Ugh! :mad: I was going too fast and didn't read the question properly. It said "which one is not a therapeutic use of Zovirax?" I missed the operative word , "NOT", in the sentence and got that one wrong. I hate quizzes with less than twenty questions. You miss one and you've got a B!

We're on word problems now for the math portion. Talk about tedious!!! I'm finally understanding how you set up the problems, but it takes half a page just to work through the answer. The first test was over 6 chapters and I knocked that out in a day. This next math test is over 8 chapters and I'm only done with 2 of them because it's taking so long to work through the problems :eek:

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Specializes in Hospitalist Medicine.

Had our Unit II Exam today. I got an A....barely (91%). This class is killing me. I usually get good grades pretty easy. None of this subject is intuitive and it's difficult to memorize. I'm spending the majority of my study time on this one class. I will be so thankful when this semester is over (9 more weeks and counting!!!) :D

We have our 2nd pass/fail math test next week. When I first started this math unit, it was very daunting. Now that I've worked through quite a few of the problems, I have a better grasp on how to set up the equation. Even though it's tedious, I write it out step-by-step until I have my answer. I feel better about this test than the last one, since it's more practical than theoretical.

How's your class going, gelibean?

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Specializes in Inpatient Obstetrics.

Lucky You!! I hope I pass with an A on first test which is this Friday!! I am seriously shaking in my boots!! All I do is spend my time on this course, day and night! I don't know what to expect from the test, so I am constantly going over EVERYTHING! I have been taking the quizzes online as part of our grade and I am getting between B's and C's which is making me even more nervous for the test! Oh Pickles!! >.

I need to relax but it is sooo hard! My life, at this moment lol, depends on this class!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhh!!!!

But I guess other than that, I am doing ok, just frazzled :/

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Specializes in Hospitalist Medicine.

You can do it, gelibean!!! I know you can :D

It's certainly different going from science classes that came easy to me, to a "science" class that's more nursing-based and not as black & white/methodical. There are vague "which is more correct?" type of questions. When I asked my Pharm prof why the questions are so difficult to interpret the correct answer, even when you KNOW the material, she said to think of it this way: when you're in the real world, patient issues aren't textbook issues, there are many times when you have to prioritize your care, so that's why they give us questions like that. Plus, they do this on the NCLEX, too.

It's got me shaking in my boots that nursing school is going to be a lot tougher than I thought! :eek:

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Specializes in Inpatient Obstetrics.

Thanks SopranoKris for your encouragement!! I was so pooped from studying that I didn't have high expectations going into my exam. I felt like I studied so hard that my hard drive (brain) crashed. We had an hour to answer 50 questions. By the time I reached the end I felt terrible about my test. I thought I was going to end up with a 50 or 60 but ended up making an 86! Word around class is that I made the highest grade... But I'm just glad that I even passed. So close to being an A but still very happy :)

Now I'm giving myself a break and will start reading my chapters over today's lecture later tonight. Phew! One test down two more to go plus the math test.

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Specializes in Hospitalist Medicine.

YAY!!! That's wonderful news! You did a great job, gelibean :D

Doesn't it feel great to know that you got one of the highest scores? I always wish when scores are low across the board that they would grade on a curve.

I got very lucky on my exam. I originally scored an 88%, but since she used an old test, there were questions about Avandia on it. Avandia was taken off the market in 2007. The questions should have been about Actos. She decided to give everyone bonus points for the 2 questions. Plus, she realized that the automatic grading system marked me wrong because I capitalized the drug name on a fill-in-the-blank question. So, that gave me another 2 points. I ended up with a 92%...whew!

Of course, that didn't last long. Unit III is even worse. On a 10 question reading quiz, I ended up getting a 70% because I got 3 questions wrong. I feel like every time I make progress, I take a step back in this class. I know the quiz is only worth 2 1/2 percent of our grade, but I've never gotten anything below a B on any science quiz or test ever. It really freaked me out!!!! I feel like I'm going to struggle all semester with this course...ugh!

I keep telling myself I'm almost halfway done...right???

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Specializes in Inpatient Obstetrics.

It does feel good but it still freaks me out that a lot of students didn't do so well... I just didn't feel like I was studying the right way for this class but it seems like I am, somehow lol.

The teacher did indirectly mention how the teachers goes over the exam and they figure out if any questions should be thrown out or if they should even throw out the whole exam and then it goes by the Dean.. I didn't know it was that extreme lol. So I hope the 86 goes up to a 90 :D

We have to keep pushing and moving up!! We may be pulling our hair but it'll be worth it at the end!

And YES we are almost halfway done!!

BTW for your math exam part.. are you taking several math tests to qualify or do you have one math test at the end or near end of the semester?

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Specializes in Hospitalist Medicine.
BTW for your math exam part.. are you taking several math tests to qualify or do you have one math test at the end or near end of the semester?

We take Math Pre-Test 1 and have to score a 90% or better. If not, you have to go to a remedial math workshop. Then you take Pre-Test 2 (again, 90% or better). Same deal as before.

I just took Pre-Test 2 on Friday and got 100%...yay!!! :D :D :D

The next test is the "big" one. If you score 90% or better, you're done with dosaging math. If you don't score 90%, you're required to attend a full remedial math workshop. You get one more chance to take the test. If you don't pass with a 90% or better, you fail the ENTIRE Pharmacology class, regardless of your overall grade :eek:

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