Does anyone know how to answer Pharm ?'s, when u have no clue????

i disagree. we should start learning but it is impossible. the point of clinical is to learn the point of precepting is to learn and feel comfortable the only way to learn is to do. dont be so harsh on the boards.

wow. stunning. so... you are giving meds in clinical without knowing what they are, how the body reacts to them, and what the potential side effects are? not trying to be harsh--just genuinely curious.

we have an instructor by our side while administring medications. heres the deal this is how it works with our school.... you start clinicals the first year u make it into the program. passing meds by 2nd semester. we dont take Pharmacology till Junior year. for us its a seperate class.

every single clinical we have an instructor by our side passing meds with us. before the med is given she asks us what it is what does it do and anything else particular about the medication . then we give it. all of those clinicals before we give the med we have to have looked the information up .

popular medications youll learn overtime bc u give them constantly . this doesnt mean u give a med once you know it forever. of course not. thats impossible its about repitition.

its about SAFE care if you dont know the med you look it up. if you do and are confident give the medication.

so of course meds like Lasix. Morphine. Digoxin. Insulins. Maalox. Coreg. Lopressor. Other meds that are really popular alot of us students know... but we still need practice. theres SOOO many meds and sooo many patients with unique problems. it comes with practice.

It may help to prioritize which instruction if not given would cause the most harm to the patient. When taking the NCLEX they just want to know if you know which instruction is most important to the patient when recieving certain medications and why. Hope this helps.

I had at least 8 med ?'s, some I knew right away because they were familiar. A couple were WTH is that?? When I could not pick the answer because I knew nothing about the drug, and I studied my butt off, I chose the answer with the worst outcome for the pt. and moved on. Don't dwell, not even the Doctors know every drug. That is what drug books are for. Good Luck.

No one can possibly know every single drug. New ones come out on the market weekly/monthly. Hard to keep up. You start working at one place they will use these group of meds, you go elsewhere, they used a whole different set. On top of everything, doctors don't know all the meds and neither do the pharmacists. When you call a pharmacist for information, they tell you right off the bat "Let me check for you" Hard to determine what is going to be on nclex. Try and learn the basic ones and hope for the best.

wow. stunning. so... you are giving meds in clinical without knowing what they are, how the body reacts to them, and what the potential side effects are? not trying to be harsh--just genuinely curious.

If you don't know a med in clinical you LOOK IT UP. Can't do that with the NCLEX. It is impossible to know all meds, and if you think you do, I'm scared of you. I agree that some of the pharmacology on the NCLEX is ridiculous. We should know the "big drugs" that are used all the time, and we should know classifications. Asking us to know some random drug and whether it needs to be taken with food or not is silly.

If you don't know a med in clinical you LOOK IT UP. Can't do that with the NCLEX. It is impossible to know all meds, and if you think you do, I'm scared of you. I agree that some of the pharmacology on the NCLEX is ridiculous. We should know the "big drugs" that are used all the time, and we should know classifications. Asking us to know some random drug and whether it needs to be taken with food or not is silly.

Never did I say that I knew all of the meds that are on the market today... I have been a nurse for a long time, and I look things up A LOT! I agree with those posters who stated that you learn as much as you can while in school--and make educated guesses on unfamiliar medications encountered on the NCLEX. However, critical thinking is a skill developed over time--and is not possible without a sufficient knowledge base stored in the long-term memory. With this comes the ability to apply that knowledge to new and different situations. This knowledge base must be acquired in school...

I would also add that if you are receiving difficult questions about obscure medications that require advanced analytical abilities in order to answer them, then you should take comfort in the fact that you are very far from the minimum passing standard on the NCLEX--and you will do fine.