How well should a new second semester nursing student know medications?

[ns808]

I am in my 1st week of clinicals in second semester and don't know medications that well and it makes clinicals that much more scarry...I passed pharm with a B but forgot most of the information. There are certain meds I can tell you what they are for but I don't know the S/E, the peak times and all the nursing implications for each one so I will be depending on my drug guide to retrieve the information before medication admin. How well should a second semester nursing student know meds?

[Rose_Queen, BSN, MSN, RN]

Do you have the opportunity to research your patient prior to arriving for clinicals? If so, you should be able to look up the meds the patient is on, their medical history, and use your drug guide to have some info ahead of time. If not, then make sure you take the time to look up the meds prior to administration. No nurse is ever going to know every drug; however, he or she should be familiar with the drugs they see the most often.

[rob4546, ADN, BSN, MSN]

At this point I would not beat myself up about a perceived lack of knowledge. Like it was said above, not every nurse will know all drugs but should be aware of the common and useful meds. Of the drugs you learn try to understand the physiology and pharmacology of the medications and then understanding the S/E is much easier. It is the difference between memorizing and knowing the facts.

If you have prior knowledge of the patient and their meds then you should be aware of them for clinicals. If you are surprised with a med then you need to know how to look it up and find the information you really need. Be resourceful and it will come with time and use. Start making lists of the common meds you see and study them.

[toomanypants]

As a nursing student, I definitely did not know my meds by heart. I took pharm while I was in med/surg. It would be silly to be expected to just know your meds.

You are expected to look them up before passing them, and you should know nursing considerations too, like BP parameters. I looked up my medications before each morning, while the nurse was reviewing charts after report.

Do be ready when your crazy professor demands to know everything about all four of your patients by 8 am.

[doxielover304]

You won't know meds that well until you work as a nurse once you graduate

[AspiringNurseMW]

My instructors make up make our own med cards. So since first semester I have been compiling them. You start to use some meds more than others and I've very slowly started to know some.

We research our patient and their meds the night before we arrive at clinicals (except for OB)