How to learn about drugs on your own?

[northmississippi]

Someone pointed out on here that todays nursing schools don't do enough clinicals or focus enough on pharmacology and many new nurses don't know enough about drugs. What would be some ways to become more self-taught on this matter? Any methods or book supplement ideas?

Thanks.

[ckh23, BSN, RN]

Buy a pharmacology book and start reading.

[JROregon, ASN, BSN, RN]

Yep! And I would start with the drugs (categories) used most. You won't learn everything this way. You'll want to study each drug for the patients you have in clinicals. Know those side effects and contraindications. Why is your patient getting Lasix? Is is for high blood pressure or congestive heart failure? What lab values do you need to look for before handing out coumadin or heparin? What do you want to know about your patient's heart rate before administering digoxin?

[ImThatGuy, BSN, RN]

I'd go to Drugs.com and look at the Top 200 Drugs list. Read the first 20 and you'll have the bulk of our medicated society pegged.

Quick Google-Fu gave me the 2009 list. I don't know if 2010 is out yet.

http://www.drugs.com/top200.html

[Staragate, ADN, ASN, RN]

http://www.globalrph.com/druglist.htm I found this on a quick google search. It looks like a good guide.

[JRP1120, RN]

http://www.globalrph.com/druglist.htm I found this on a quick google search. It looks like a good guide.

Awesome site! Thanks for posting! :)

[regrebs]

I'd go to Drugs.com and look at the Top 200 Drugs list. Read the first 20 and you'll have the bulk of our medicated society pegged.

Quick Google-Fu gave me the 2009 list. I don't know if 2010 is out yet.

http://www.drugs.com/top200.html

Very helpful list! Definitely saving this to my bookmarks.

[KatieMI, BSN, MSN, RN]

Dedicate one pocket of you uniform to a basic pharm book only (ask instructor for suggestions, but only use book you're comfortable with, and don't hesitate to use things like cards or PDA databases if you feel better with them - here, your comfort amounts for 50% of success). If you see a drug and feel you know what it is, peek at that pocket and read everything about it. You probably find something you didn't know before it. If you see a drug and have no idea about it, do the same. If you don't have time, write down the name of the drug and do it at home. Make no exclusions from this rule, and you'll probably fly through 90% of meds used in that particular department within a couple of weeks.

The main point here is to drill yourself daily while trying NOT to memorize everything at once. Instead, try to do it just like you learn spelling and let the information seep into your memory by itself. Another important thing is not letting things like pathophysiology or mechanisms slip out of hands and become forgotten, so if you don't understand something, clarify this point ASAP.

[shananigansWI]

My organic/bio chem class had a semester long project doing assignments and writing a paper and presentation on one drug. When I was doing my research on lorazepam I came across the Mosby's Nursing Drug Reference guide at the library. I really like the format and references, I plan to get one when I start my program in the fall.

[That Guy, BSN, RN, EMT-B]

Start experimenting?

[OB-nurse2013, BSN, RN]

ewwww my horrible pharm class is more then enough for me thank you :)

[ImThatGuy, BSN, RN]

Start experimenting?

You know this was the first thing I started to reply with. Anytime I say something like this though I get a five page thread of people seemingly insulted and offended by it, lol.