Most common drugs

DolceVita, ADN, BSN, RN · Jul 3, 2009

I understand that you want to get ahead but I really think you might want to do this in conjunction with reading the relevant chapters in your pharmacology textbook. You will probably find that rather than memorizing a bunch of individual drugs your instructor will want you to look at at trends in GROUPS of medications. He/she will also guide you on the specific drugs that will come up again and again (that you do need to memorize at this stage).

One group that we did in great detail was diabetic medications. Onset, peak duration...the whole lot. Others were the cholinergics, anti-cholinergics, adrenergics & anti adrenergics.

One place that helped me a lot was http://www.atu.edu/nursing/people/self/. My instructor had terrible power-points so I used the ones on that site.

Anyway I am sure some of the very cool instructors who lurk here might offer an opinion.

Daytonite, BSN, RN · Jul 3, 2009

drugs.com (http://www.drugs.com/) has a list on its home page of the top 100 drugs prescribed. rxlist.com (http://www.rxlist.com/) has a list of the top 200 prescribed drugs as well. its a place to start.

pawashrn · Jul 3, 2009

stop. You are already over stressing yourself. First, you must know anatomy and physiology to begin understanding the purpose of the medication. Do yourself a great favor put down the books enjoy your summer. Because for the next few months you are going to be overwhelmed with information. And from reading your question you may want to invest in some zantac: action h2 blocker, purpose: decrease risk of stomach ulcers. relax

shrimpchips, LPN · Jul 3, 2009

Here is another tool I received in my older adult rotation - sheets on anticoags and diabetic medications.

In addition to that, I was also going to suggest the top 200 most commonly prescribed drugs from http://www.rxlist.com :)

Anticoagulant & Antidiabetic Medications.doc

rachelgeorgina · Jul 4, 2009

We learnt about drugs, generally, by system - in conjunction with the science (anatomy and phys etc) and the clinical skills. E.g. when we did cardio we did beta blockers, ACE inhibitors, calcium channel blockers, beta-andreoreceptor blockers etc.

J9G2008 · Jul 6, 2009

We have never been required to know drugs inside and out from the beginning. If I were you, I would start studying, say, the cardiac drugs by classification:beta blockers, ACE inhibitors, calcium channel blockers, and the other one that I can't remember right now :uhoh3: . Anyhoo, know what they do and how they do it. You may want to find out what type of unit you will be on for your first clinical, and get some idea of the meds commonly used. Like, my first clinical was a telemetry unit, so there were cardiac meds passed, but also diabetic, supplements, stool softeners, anticoagulants. You will have a chance to look up the meds before you give them, and your instructor will probably want to know something like this: Colace is a stool softener that draws liquid into the bowel to make the mass softer and easier to expell. This is being given because the pt is one day post-op and has not passed any stool since 2 days ago. You also don't want to give all the uses of the drug. Like with aspirin, if it's being given as an antiplatelet aggregation med, you won't discuss its ability to lower fever. That's not why the patient is taking it. (You also don't call aspirin a blood thinner-I did that. Don't do that. )

Also, as you go along in school, they will probably make you do Pharmacology Data Sheets as part of your clinical paperwork, where you get into all the particulars of your patient's meds.

Oh, hey, I think I remembered: alpha adrenergic blocker!

ICAN! · Jul 6, 2009

Thanks so much for all the information everyone! You have all been very helpful. I'm hoping we learn the drugs by system also and in conjunction with the science and clinical skills. I have already taken prereqs so I have had A&P, Micro, etc. but I'm sure it will all be brought back up again. Thanks again!