Medication Confusion

[danikitty]

I am soon to be a new grad. Does any one have any tips on how to remember all the medications and what they do?

[sbostonRN]

Try to remember medication classes. Oftentimes, the side effects are similar, and the suffixes of the generic names are the same or similar. There's no way that you'll ever remember every medication out there, but you will get to know the meds you use most often. There's no shame in looking up a med in your PDA to check the dose range, side effects or nursing considerations!

[muffins20]

I had the Davis Drug guide in school and in the front it had a section for the different classifications that covered side effects, action, purpose, etc. There's no easy way to do it, but try repetition, teaching, or thinking of real-life examples from clinical to help you remember the drug.

[danikitty]

Thank You very much. I will try to remember drug classes instead of each drug.

[Meriwhen, ASN, BSN, MSN, RN]

Also, even when you get to know all the drugs, there are a lot of sound-alike/look-alike drugs...so if the drug sounds wrong for the reason you're giving it, stop and do a double-check.

For example, if you're patient has HTN, a little red flag should go up in your mind if you're about to give them a Klonopin to bring the pressure down (because it probably should be clonidine instead) :)