How can I start preparing for patho and pharm?

PaulBaxter · Oct 7, 2014

Some people here might say it's a waste of time to try to prepare, but I'm with you. I love to be as prepared as I can be. Here's three ideas.

1. Go to your local used bookstores and see if they have any used textbooks. I found a Patho book from 2004 very cheaply.

2. Go to your school library. They very likely have an assortment of books on this topic. This has the advantage of being free, but the disadvantage of being limited to whatever your lending period is.

3. Go online. See if you can find course outlines for either of those courses. Or go to sites like EdX and Coursera and look for some free online courses in related fields. I took the Intro to Physiology course offered through Coursera and it was very helpful to me.

Medic6758 · Oct 8, 2014

I do not know about pharmacology, however I am taking pathophysiology and if you did very well in A&P 1 and 2, along with microbiology, you will do well. I am really enjoying patho because it is the first class that is a combination of 3 other classes where everything comes together.

pmabraham, BSN, RN · Oct 8, 2014

Good day, Natalie:

FutureLearn.com has the science of medicine (for free) which may be helpful for pharmacology. https://www.class-central.com/ is a great aggregator for finding free classes on different subject matters (like science of medicine). For pathophysiology, I've been mainly finding youtube.com videos to be of the most help including https://evolve.elsevier.com/ and Huether Pathophysiology Online (various modules, this is just one).

Thank you.

P.S. For pathophysiology, I also have Clinical Pathophysiology made ridiculously simple and Pathophysiology made incredibly easy books; sometimes they are helpful.

Leonardsmom,LPN · Oct 9, 2014

I will be taking pharmacology this spring so I will be following this thread for suggestions on how to start preparing early.

If you haven't seen it already there is a thread in the Nursing Student Assistance subforum in which a member shared their pharmacology flashcards that they made. You can print them out and glue them to index cards. I personally am actually handwriting them out, I don't have a printer at home and printing at school is limited, along with the fact part of my learning style is writing. I am planning on having my flashcards ready before the start of spring semester. That way I have had exposure to what I will need to learn next semester along with having my flashcards ready to start using when the class starts. Good luck.

glencoco · Oct 9, 2014

I just started my nursing program this semester and I was worried about Pharm and Patho too. I thought those were tough core classes and I really wanted to well on them. Before the program started, I was planning to review my A&P notes to prepare for Patho but I got lazy and didn't do that. I am taking Patho now and I don't think it's necessary to do that if you have a good foundation in A&P. In Patho/as a nurse, you won't need to know what things go where and when to make something work in specifics. You will need to know in general what functions are and how things work. However, if you struggled in A&P, I would definitely review your notes.

For Pharm, I don't think there is any way to study for that. You could take a look at some drug categories and try to know actions, side effects, etc but personally I feel like that stuff is so dry and honestly not necessary to review before you start classes. As a disclaimer though, I am in a semester system (15 weeks, ugh) so maybe we are covering the material much slower than quarter system, making it that review/preparation was not necessary.

Nienna Celebrindal · Oct 10, 2014

start studying the classes in pharm, doesn't get caught up in individual drugs, know the classes. If you go in really understanding them all you will be leaps and bounds ahead.