what is pharmacology all about?

[apexsw20trd]

i need to take a pharmacology class next semester as a co-requsite to get accepted to the nursing program. people have told me different things about pharm, things like "oh this class is the hardest class i have taken harder then zoolo" or " this class is easy , you just need to memorize alot of information" so what is it.

i would like to know what pharm. is all about?

is it mostly memorization, or concepts?

also what are the test like? all multiple choice or essay?

on a scale of 1-10 and 10 being most difficult what would you rate pharmocology as? also it would be nice to rate some zoology classes as well to give me an idea of the difficulty of pharmocology.

thank you

[mavnurse]

I'm taking pharm this semester. Before I started I heard terrible things about it, but it's not too bad. I would say it's probably the same level of difficulty as A&P, considering the volume of info you have to learn. So I guess however you did in A&P will sort of tell you what to expect in pharm.

Here are some links you may want to check out:

www.medicalmnemonics.com (ways to keep Beta 1, 2, Alpha 1, 2, receptors, blockers, etc. straight without going crazy)

www.pharmaquiz.com (this one is GREAT - everything here is actually relevant to what you'll cover in class and probably a lot like what you'll see on your tests - great review)

www.medscape.com (this one has more current events related to drug therapy and nursing - great if you have to write any reports)

Hope this helps! Good luck with this class!

-Lesley:)

[mitchsmom]

Mine is tons of memorization also. In my school Pharm is actually a second semester class in the BSN program (not a prereq). We had one big drug calc test at the beginning but none since, they do it in clinicals. For me personally it is challenging but not nearly as hard as A&P - but that really just depends on the teacher/class. My A&P had memorization for the "A" portion but the "P" portion had tons of concepts we had to learn that were hard (akin to patho). The only thing that frustrates me about Pharm right now is that we have weekly 10 question quizzes and if you miss one you already don't have an 'A' because a 92 is an 'A'... out of all those millions of facts every week I just can't pick the 10 things she's going to prioritize! I usually get an 80 or 90 and it's driving me nuts b/c I'm a really anal, usually A student and it's 40% of our grade. Another 20% is a Drug Analysis paper that we had to interview someone for and write up all the info on their drugs (mine was 20 pgs. long, it had to include 3+ drugs, 1+herbal therapy, 1+ dietary issue), the other 40% is the final. Anyway... I should be studying it right now so I better run! :)