Paramedic school question...

[Indy1524]

This should be easy for you nurses. I am currently in paramedic school and lm having a hard time with one remembering my drug dosages, indications, there actions blah blah blah anyone have a easy way of helping me with this problem l am not a book smart guy l need to see it in action to help me remeber it. i read it and read it and read it but nothing sticks for very long. And also l have been having a hard time with the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system, i know the sympathetic is the fght or flight fuled by adrineline and parasympathetic is the rest and digest which helps slow you back down and digest and blah blah but my problem lies in the anticholinergic, parasympathomimetic, parasympatholytic and so on and so forth l am having a hard time tying all that together with the drugs that affect them. this might make it easier to be able to learn the drugs as reviously discussed in this letter.. Well l hope someone has the time to give me some hints on how to make this stick in my head so l can get past this catch back up with the class.. I hope you have a great day. Thanks :typing

[GilaRRT]

thanks to all for the support, and this goes to those who everything comes so easy to that you have to make everyone else that is having it hard feel so stupid. good for you. I did have a survey of the human body course it was not that great of a class. It takes more then just reading for me to get a good grasp on this stuff so l have been explaining what l learn about in class to my wife and she has the book in front of her and she quizzes me, so that is helping. I found a few memoriziation websites that look very helpful. I wish there was a intro to pharm at my college but there is not and even if there was l have a deadline to become a medic and l would not have had enough time before medic school to take it but l wish there was one that would make this so much easier. we have 55 drugs that we have to know inside and out by Nov. 26th. Im about to have a stroke...

This is what I suspected. What a shame. This is not the way to learn pharmacology. However, I notice many EMS courses do this. You are told "these are the 50 or so medications you will use as a paramedic, learn them inside out." No real pharmacology course, no solid foundation of knowledge to work from, and no general knowledge of medications that you do not use. Really a suboptimal situation IMHO.

In addition, a survey of the human body course does not sound like an adequate substitute for a year of A&P with labs. Look through the threads. You will notice many nursing students are having a rough time learning about the medical aspect of the job (pharmacology, labs, pathophysiology, etc), and they usually have the advantage of a year of A&P, a semester of micro/molecular biology, and a pharm course among many other general, elective, and science courses.

So many PM programs do a disservice to the student, the profession, and ultimately the patient. Good luck, but it sounds like you have some big obstacles to overcome.

[Medic09, BSN, RN, EMT-P]

Gila may be right; certainly I was taught pretty serious pharm. as a medic. In fact, I didn't have to take it for my BSN because I had satisfied that requirement already.

Nonetheless, this simply emphasizes how much of our education is always up to us. Learn what is required now, as you DO have to pass, after all. But plan on continuing to read and learn more as you move on.

The best medics, nurses, docs, RTs, etc. are the ones who never stop learning.