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LPN_thts_M3 · Feb 13, 2009

True enough drugs are hard to learn but I learn best with charts instead of trying to study them out of the book. Drug cards do help and if you get some 3x5 notecards and bind then together with a metal ring you can tote them around with you. Its very convenient. Trade names are a pain but with the generics you can group them together by suffix. If you haven't learned by now you can often tell a drug by the ending. I makes charts whenever i have to learn a large amount of drugs and I group them by class (antiarrythmics, antiemetics, beta blockers, etc.)..for ex. Metaprolol, Propranolol, pindolol, and Labetalol all end in "LOL" (laugh out loud at the beta blockers) so whenever I see drugs that end in LOL I know that those are beta blockers and are used with heart patients. I am not really sure what info you need to know about the drugs. If you need to know name and class this helps alot. Thats what we needed to know for our Pharm test to pass. Now if you need to know signs and symptoms there aren't really many easy ways besides repeatedly going over them for each drug which is a huge pain and seems almost impossible. Drug cards and self made charts are def the way to go. Also saying them out loud. Hope that helps!! Do they give you a list of drugs theyexpect you to know??

NurseLoveJoy88, ASN, RN · Feb 13, 2009

Drug charts and Flash cards helped me as well. Or if you're not in the mood to write you can always record your drugs on the recorder and listen to them. I learned that knowing the drug catergories verses all the drugs was more helpful to me. Good luck, this too shall pass. Oh and I also work full- time, have classes during the night and go to clinical E/O weekend. It can be done !