Is this a good sign or a bad sign about Pharmacology??

[mzjones6]

Good morning all,

I just finished the first week of an accelerated ASN program. We're suppose to take Pharmacology, Medical Terminology and Foundations in Nursing this first semester. Some of us (myself included) aren't taking Medical Terminology because we took it in undergrad or as a pre-req to the program or whatever the case may be. So for the next month all I'm studying in Pharm. My teacher is great and easy-going, we get alot done in the 7 hours we're in class but she doesn't try to beat the info into us.

We have our first exam on Monday, its covering intro to Pharm, ANS drugs, and respiratory drugs. Well yesterday was my first full day studying, all day. Not constantly but continuously all day long. So I got bed around 1:30am and I went to sleep thinking about anti-cholinergic and atropine toxicity and beta blockers in my head, because that's all I could think of. Is this a bad thing or a good thing? I know you can only study so much before you actually may start to not retain anything, so do you think I'm studying too hard for this class? I've read several times on these threads that Pharmacology is about memorization, but I don't want to memorize it because I have to apply soon (we start skills lab at the end/beginning of the Oct/Nov). Does anyone think I'm doing too much in terms of my study habits or is it good that I went to sleep thinking about bronchodilators and methyxanthines agents.

Keep in mind that I'm a 23yo single female with no kids or a job, so I have nothing else to do all day but study. Any and all suggestions and comments would be appreciated.

[MB37]

As long as you're THINKING about the drugs, and why they work the way they do, you'll do fine. If you're lying in bed WORRYING about knowing the drugs then you have a problem. I took pharm in a 10 week summer session, and you really had to know how and why everything worked to do well. As long as the studying isn't too much for you to feel like you're still learning, and as long as you take some time out for yourself, you sound just fine to me!

[livingthedream, APN]

I am in the middle of PHARM now in an Masters program - and we have mid-term on Monday - so I feel your pain. We do have weekly quizzes though, so we are ready for the types of questions. I agree that you should UNDERSTAND each drug and what it does and what it interacts with - the questions that we get on quizzes are not XXX drug does this... they are more, you have given a pt. a dose of X and it has a 1/2 life of X, what day of the week would this drug be at therapeutic level? Or something about the X drug works: intropically on the X, conotropically on the X and domatropically on the X... and then the answers are all mixed up and you have to remember which one does what..... so good luck - and study hard, you will be great!!!

and sorry about the spelling errors - thank goodness we get multiple choice!