common side effects of drugs

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Good morning. I have a question that I need clarification on. I have to do case studies this semester for my Med-Surg clinical. Anyways, we have to list all of their drugs, and the pertinent information regarding them. It asks for the common side effects of each drug. In the drug book it lists the common side effects by systems but there are a ton of side effects listed. Would it be best for me to list ALL of them or just a few? If just a few, how do I determine which are the most common? Thank you.

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Specializes in Infusion Nursing, Home Health Infusion.

Learning side effects of drugs can drive you nuts if you do not group them in your mind. Drugs in similar categories will have similar side effects. Good drug and pharmacology books will list the most common and most troublesome. For example, the aminoglycosides (ie. prototype Gentamycin) can cause ototoxicity and nephrotoxicity. The penicillins as a group have 4 common side effects...these are serum-like sickness....anapylaxis...dermatologic....and hematologic. If you study and group them this way it is a lot easier to remember for tests and real life nursing. A PDR will often the list the side effects and adverse effects by a percentage often in a chart format. It will list n/v and then will list 50 % of pts will experience this.

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I use the Davis Drug Guide for Nurses and it has the most common side effects underlined and the most dangerous side effects in red.

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