How do you study for pharm?

[Rn-08-NP10-ToBe]

I'm having the hardest time figuring out a plan to study pharm! I didn't have a pharm course in college, which is definately biting me in the butt now! I know people say just study the class of the drug, common side effects (which then you should be able to develop nursing care from) and be able to identify what drug goes into what class.. so last night I attempted to make a chart type study guide since I'm definately a visual learner.. but it seems impossible to study them all! Out of roughtly 6-7 general classes of drugs (I did it by antimicrobals, GI meds, cardio meds, etc.), then between 5-18 sub classes of the drugs.. it ends up being about 70+ classes to know with side effects!!! Am I studying right? Should I just be learning the general class, such as antimicrobials, or should I keep doing what I'm doing and study specifically aminoglycosides, then penicillins, then tetracyclines, etc.? Any advice on your best way to study pharm would be greatly, greatly, greatly appreciated!!!! Thank you!

[smattles1of2]

I viewed the pharm questions kind of like vocab on the SAT. You can't possibly know every drug in the world and who knows which 5 drugs, etc. you might get on the NCLEX. That being said, I focused on HTN drugs like digoxin, etc. and some psych drugs like the different types of antidepressants. Just little stuff like which ones cause anti-cholinergic side effects and which ones don't.

I bought that big box of drug cards from Kaplan, but barely looked at it!

Also, if you don't know the drug, try and figure it out by the name. Like if you get Renagel and asked what it does...but you have no clue...look at the word. It has "rena" in it...so you can assume it's for a renal problem.

Good luck! I'm sure others have better ways!

[gwafuh_rn, BSN, RN]

read the saunders book.before the end of the chapter,there are meds that are being used.for example,after a disease has been discussed,there's a medication that is being used to cure or prevent that particular disease.

sorry for the long explanation.hehehe