How do you remember all of the nursing considerations for meds?

[xmilkncookiesx, RN]

I can hardly remember the meds I've been assigned this whole semester (first semester)

I know a few. But the recommended dosages, nursing considerations.. I can't remember. It's too much for me personally. How do you remember them? What advice can you give me to memorize them easier?

I know that majority of side effects in meds are N&V, diarrhea, abdominal pain, stomach discomfort, pain, etc., the basics ...

I know some may be hypokalemia, HTN, hypotension, bradycardia, tachycardia, tachypnea, bradypnea .. But I can't remember what exactly those would apply to what meds ..

I've heard of studying them by their classes. But I'm confused as hell because idk WHICH CLASSES TO STUDY THEM BY! :,(

There's therapeutic class and then pharmacologic class. And ppl say to study them by class. Well .... Which one??? Or how do you do it? Because learning them separately is getting me no where and it's frustrating the hell out of me

I want to be able to know my **** and understand it and master them as much as I can! And be able to pass knowledge onto patients, my other fellow student nurses, and be able to tell my instructors what they are, what they do, why, side effects, and all that stuff, whenever they ask me!

Please help

[nynursey_]

Your post might be better served to nursing student forums, but in any event, I'll give you a few words of advice:

1. Try learning the medications in classes. Then think of the class of medication and it's intended purpose. Think on the body systems it exerts it effects, and then try to connect the dots.

2. Acronyms may also be helpful in remember clusters of medications and/or side effects.

3. Try memorizing side effects out of exclusion and inclusion. Find the similar ones in a class and note them as universal, then focus on remembering the side effects that are drug specific.

I hope this helps! Memorizing medications is certainly important for testing purposes, and certainly for patient teaching, but in practice there are usually very handy resources available for reminders.

[xmilkncookiesx, RN]

Your post might be better served to nursing student forums, but in any event, I'll give you a few words of advice:

1. Try learning the medications in classes.

Which class though? Therapeutic or pharmacologic ? This is what I don't understand. People keep saying to learn them by their classes but by which one?

Therapeutic.. Or pharmacologic?

[Whispera, MSN, RN]

To me "class" means what is the medication's purpose. If you look in your med books, you'll see meds grouped by their purposes. So, you can learn them by their purpose, such as...pain relief, antihypertensive, antidiarrheal, and so on. Once you group them that way, lots in each class will work the same way and have the same side effects. Then, if you remember which class a med is in, you can attach them to those similar factors more easily.

I'm not sure what you mean by therapeutic and pharmacologic.

[ArtClassRN, ADN, RN]

What really helped me was knowing the mechanism of action, then going from there.

[SaltineQueen]

Which class though? Therapeutic or pharmacologic ? This is what I don't understand. People keep saying to learn them by their classes but by which one?

Therapeutic.. Or pharmacologic?

Class as in:

--lol = beta blockers

--pril = ace inhibitors

Stuff like that

[Libby1987]

To put together what everyone is saying..

Both classes. First by therapy/purpose then by pharmacologic.

Group your therapies i.e. anti hypertensives then separate by class i.e. beta blockers, ACE inhibitors, Ca+ channel blockers. These pharm groups can be recognized fairly easily by their root i.e. -lol -pril -pine

First you start simple i.e. The -lols will lower heart rate so you always watch for bradycardia and teach patients to count their pulse before taking.

One thing I learned that helped me was to personalize medications i.e. Here are my Dad's meds and I need to know what they are and what symptoms/adverse effects my Dad might experience. What and how do I teach Mom and Dad what to watch for amd how to take safely? Suddenly potassium replacement, heart rate, urine output, take on empty stomach, daily weight etc have MEANING I can relate to. Making it personal made the working knowledge stick. Then build from there, from simplistic to more in depth.

[Sunflowerinsc, ADN, RN]

Which class though? Therapeutic or pharmacologic ? This is what I don't understand. People keep saying to learn them by their classes but by which one?

Therapeutic.. Or pharmacologic?

It's not the "class" your taking in school they are talking about. It's the class of the medication ,meaning how it's used. You'll see antihytensive listed as "class" and then broken down such as beta- blockers ,calcium channel blocker , and so on to each type (or class) of antihytensive medications. And the other class as muscle relaxants, anti-invectives,thyroid preparations and more . Then you can see what each class is used for and go on to know the reasons one is chosen over others in that class.