Common Drugs To Know For Nclex

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So I'm currently on a summer break and I wanted to touch up on the common drugs I should know for nclex. I just took pharmacology 2 semesters ago so I quite don't remember a lot of them. What are some of the drugs I should touch up on? Thanks in advance!

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Specializes in Cardiac, Intermediate Care.

I focused on classes of drugs, not specific drugs. There is no telling which drugs will be on the exam, so studying in detail did not seem worth it to me. Also, there are no trade names on the exam, only generics, so make sure you can recognize a drug based on the suffix (-lol, -pril).

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Specializes in Hospitalist Medicine.

There's no way you will know every single drug that could possibly be on NCLEX. Heck, my very first question was a med I've never ever seen before. As suggested above, focus on drug classes. I would definitely know digoxin. Don't learn trade names. Generics only for NCLEX. That was hard for me because I know certain drugs by their trade names. Like Zosyn or Zofran. It still takes me off guard to call it pipercillin & ondansetron because we learned trade names when I took Pharm. Now that NCLEX has changed, our program changed how we learn meds.

If you can recognize classes of meds and have a good understanding of their action & side effects, you should be good :)

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Specializes in Neonatal Nurse Practitioner.

I had several drugs that I didn't know and couldn't figure out based on pre-/suffixes. I just answered making safety my priority.

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Antiphyscotics/Antidepressants

Anticoagulants

Cardiac meds

Autoimmune

Antibiotics

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Specializes in NICU.
There's no way you will know every single drug that could possibly be on NCLEX. Heck, my very first question was a med I've never ever seen before. As suggested above, focus on drug classes. I would definitely know digoxin. :)

Yes, I totally agree with the above...There's no way to learn them all. Not to scare you but I did have a trade name (Yes NOT the generic😱) a new drug apparently that I didn't know. But I can assure you that you will be able to answer correctly according to the answer choices. The NCLEX is an adaptative exam. It's only goal is to try to figure out if you will be safe out there...not to grade you..Good luck!!

PS: Know the HTN Meds!!

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