First quiz in pharmacology

Esme12, ASN, BSN, RN · Jun 7, 2012

welcome to an! the largest online nursing community.

this is an excellent website for nursing students for math.

dosagehelp.com - helping nursing students learn dosage calculations and

i wish you the best on your nursing journey.:loveya:

KelRN215, BSN, RN · Jun 8, 2012

Pharmacology tests are not standardized across nursing curriculums throughout the country. Whether or not the test questions are in the same format as NCLEX questions depends on the professor.

garnetgirl29, BSN, RN · Jun 8, 2012

Our department head wrote our tests. In pharm, we had tests covering equivalents, calculations, history (such as insulin was created in 1922 by Dr.'s Banting & Best when they ground up pig & cow pancreas's), drug schedules, drug actions, nursing implications of certain drugs, etc. The questions are written to trip you up. You need to read them very carefully to be sure you understand what it's asking. For the calculations exams, we had to memorize a long list of equivalents between the metric, English & apothecary systems & we were not allowed to use calculators. We had 3 attempts to pass the first calculations exam. If you didn't pass by the 3rd try, you were out. I passed the 2nd time.

momtojosh · Jun 8, 2012

i hope our program lets us use calculators!...i am taking pharm 1 right now online,i use one.noone said i couldnt.

i NEED one,no matter how simple the math is..

i got an 80 on my first quiz...bummer!...it only had 10 questions....i hurried through it cause i was so excited to be taking it...go figure...but you can bet i will slow down on the next one and read and REread the questions and answers!!

momtojosh · Jun 8, 2012

i hope our program lets us use calculators!...i am taking pharm 1 right now online,i use one.noone said i couldnt.

i NEED one,no matter how simple the math is..

i got an 80 on my first quiz...bummer!...it only had 10 questions....i hurried through it cause i was so excited to be taking it...go figure...but you can bet i will slow down on the next one and read and REread the questions and answers!!

garnetgirl29, BSN, RN · Jun 8, 2012

Online? Really? Jeez, I wish mine was online! Ours was all on campus and the tests were based from lectures. That class was tough & it's part of our practical nursing program, so if you failed it, you're out of the whole program. Anything below an 80 for us is failing. First semester, we had Nursing Fundamentals 101 & nutrition (not a basic nutrition, an applied nursing nutrition, tho if you took the basic nutrition before entering the program, you didnt have to take the NUR 118 nutrition class). 2nd Semester, we had NUR 102 and NUR 117(Pharmacology). I'm in my 3rd semester now (graduate next month!!!) and am taking NUR 103. All classes are on campus. First & second semester, our 101 & 102 class was 8am-2pm, then nutrition followed 101 until 3pm and pharm followed 102 until 3pm. This semester, our class is Monday & Tuesday from 8am-3pm and clinicals are Wed & Thurs from 7am-3:30pm. But, we have Fridays off! Yay!

We had 2 pharm books: Math & Dosage Calculations for Healthcare Professionals and Essential of Pharmacology for Health Occupations, but most of our content came from lecture, which didn't really follow the books.

Our Pharmacology Final exam was BRUTAL. It was 1/2 calculations & 1/2 other pharm questions. Very few people passed it. I failed it by 2 points. Thankfully, my average was still high enough that I pass the class & am still in the program. Thank God!!!

We had quite a few pharm questions on our nursing final exam, too. In our program, you pretty much expect to fail the finals, but as along as you keep your average high enough & get enough points on your final, you'll still pass. Our finals are worth 30% of our grade. And, I'm expecting to see more pharm stuff on our last final. Safe medicating is seriously stressed in our program, as it should be.

mitral · Jun 9, 2012

We had many nclex type pharm ?'s as well as calculations, and occasionally essay also (ie- name the 6 rights) many of them involved med side effects, which to take with or without food, a patient is experiencing symptoms of X y and z, what med would the nurse expect to prepare for him? From my experience, my advice would be this: know the things that are kind of unusual. For example: TONS of meds have n/v, gi upset, dizziness, etc, as a side effect, but if gastric bleeding is listed, that's less common and you probably need to know it. Learn all you can about the more serious, commonly used drugs: digoxin, insulin, atropine, etc. as well. Most likely someone on your test will OD on digoxin lolAs for names, we had to know a lot of them. For this reason all but 2 of us failed the cardiac exam All i've been able to find to help with this is to Memorize groups, pre and suffixes. I always hate taking that 1st test with a new teacher, because you don't really know what you're in for yet lol. Good luck with your studies!

garnetgirl29, BSN, RN · Jun 9, 2012

Yes, we were told to memorize adverse effects and any important info about food/drug interaction with certain drugs(especially MAOI's cuz there are soooo many contraindications with them). In pharm, we also learned how to prepare drugs(mixing with diluents, drawing up syringes) and how to give injections and sites for particular injections. A couple of our tests had pictures of syringes & we had to mark the correct dosage on the syringe. Then, because a number a people marked them wrong, we had a lab test where we drew up the correct med & dosage into the correct syringe and showed our instructor. We were not allowed to pass meds until we got this right (I passed the 1st time, but many didn't). Memorizing groups is a good idea. One that was drilled into us is; the Pril family(Vasotec, Captopril/Captoten, Lisinopril/Zestril) - ACE inhibitors that lower BP & have many uses in various disease processes.

But, the caclulations exams were the most important. If you failed those, you failed the class, period. And these were not easy tests. We had many conversions with the apothecary system (which is confusing and inaccurate. For example: 1 tsp = 5mL, 1 dram = 4mL, BUT...1 dram = 1 tsp. Apothecary doses are written in roman numerals or fractions, while the metric system is whole #'s and decimals, so you need to know how to convert fractions & decimals. Our tests were full of conversions from apothecary, to metric, to household & we had a LOT of memorizing to do. (and no calculators). We had tons of questions where we had to convert lbs. to kg(which I can now do in my sleep) then figure the dosage per kg & determine whether or not it is a safe dose for that patient according to the drug label. And there were tons of IV fluid & med calculations(gtts/min, ml/hr, etc), but if you memorize the formulas, you'll be fine.

nurseprnRN, BSN, RN · Jun 9, 2012

i've never seen a pharmacology exam or nursing exam with pharmacology questions that allowed calculators. maybe there are some out there--i'm always willing to hear new stuff-- but the expectation is that a registered nurse would have mastered basic algebra (sophomore high school level), which is enough to do the conversions and calculations needed to give medications and fluids.

what would you do if you were at work and your calculator batteries died? or you were in an isolation room and couldn't take it out of your pocket? or were in an ambulance and it bounced to the floor and broke? see, you need to know this. you. in your head. garnetgirl is right.

mitral · Jun 9, 2012

We were allowed to use calculators for all of ours, and when we took our national standardized exams (like HESI), we were allowed to use them then, too. Nothing like fancy algebraic but simple ones were provided for us. We were told most calculations that are difficult at all in the real world, we would be able to talk with other nurses and work together. (which I thought was off considering how busy RNs are, but whatever) either way there are just a handful of basic equations that you will memorize and can easily apply to most questions.

angleface · Jun 9, 2012

i am feeling very lost