Help with learning medications & drugs

[lulu4545]

Im almost in the same boat; I made it in LVN prescreening now I did my first week of school. The first 2 days we took notes for history about nurses and the health field; I did CNA for 5 years and never knew about history of health field; so 2 days after notes we had our first quiz I passed with 75.2 so I was ok with it at; teacher said I was average student.

Next we had 3 days to write a few things on 6 meds spelled with an A now most of never had meds; not only that we were just given drug guide; so I studied my flash cards get in class for test; when teacher walked out to get scantron the youngsters started screaming out answers and that broke my concentration.

So I got an F I kept getting confuse because 3 were spelled almost the same. Oh its get better so now my average grade is F please tell me do I remember flash cards and remember which is which.

I want to do this in way I can remember card and the difference between the two.

Is the any website that will help; the drug guide is new edition but no cd; why did they give these book witout a cd who knows so basically my drug book look like a drug dictionnary. Davis Drug Guide 13 edtion no cd

[JustBeachyNurse, LPN]

Your post has been moved to a thread on its own in the LPN/LVN Nursing Student Forum. Do you have a pharmacology text book in addition to your drug guide? I don't know of any drug guides that come with CD-ROM's. The drug guide is basically an encyclopedia of medications (indications, names, doses, formulations, side effects, patient education) to be used as a reference source.

A good pharmacology text book will explain classes of medications, mechanism of action (how the drug works or is thought to work), common issues with a class of medicaitons, nursing responsibilities, etc. Many have CD-ROM's with NCLEX style practice questions My text book included a CD-ROM that also had drug flash cards on it.

There are MANY LASA drugs (Look Alike Sound Alike Drugs) such as Zantac vs. Xanax (one is for GERD/reflux the other is a benzodiazapine anti-anxiety med, mix them up and there will be problems), baclofen vs. bethanechol (one is a centrally acting muscle relaxant, the other is a cholinergenic to improve motility in the GI or GU system depending on the reason prescribed).