Pharm 911

thatpasunshine · Feb 27, 2010

Well I aced pharm while taking 4 other classes so here are a few tips on how I did it and maybe something in it will help you.

1. Focus on drug classes. Not indidvidual drugs. You will drive yourself crazy otherwise. If you focus on the class and then realize that drugs in this class are all very similar it is then easier to just remember the drugs in that class that dont follow the norm

2. Get a good drug guide. I used mosebys drug guide for nurses. It is great because it has nursing interventions and actions.

3. When you study dont try to memorize the information. I found it much more useful to instead relate the drugs to what they treat and how they do it. That makes it more real and thereby easier to learn since you are relating it to real life.

My final suggestion is to relax. Panic is the enemy! ! Especially in nursing school. 10 weeks is enough time to get yourself together and focus. I really wish you luck and I hope this helps

CuriousMe · Feb 27, 2010

I agree with the above post, memorizing will make you nuts...there's to much. I found knowing the drug classes to help.

The other thing is knowing the mechanism of action and then how it works with physiology. It not only helps you remember the drugs, but even the side effects then make sense instead of being a laundry list to remember.

bambam1288 · Feb 27, 2010

This is a link to my pharm. teachers web site it has drugs to know at a glance and some tip for being sucessful. Hope it helps.

http://rnlink.info/RNLINK.info/Why_Students_Succeed.html

Tarabara · Feb 28, 2010

I haven't bought it yet, so I cant say from personal experience but the other day a senior nursing student highly recommended a book called "Nursing Pharmacology Made Incredibly Easy". She said it helped her a lot, so maybe it can help you too! :) (you can order it on amazon, or it might even be in barnes and noble.)

CuriousMe · Feb 28, 2010

I haven't bought it yet, so I cant say from personal experience but the other day a senior nursing student highly recommended a book called "Nursing Pharmacology Made Incredibly Easy". She said it helped her a lot, so maybe it can help you too! :) (you can order it on amazon, or it might even be in barnes and noble.)

I'd take a look at the book before buying it. I know some find it helpful, but I've found that series makes topics so "incredibly easy" that the content is overly watered down and basic....so no longer useful.

gumby1411 · Feb 28, 2010

I'm taking Pharm right now, too. I agree, it's pretty hard to figure out what you need to know and what you don't. Unless you're superhuman, it's impossible to know everything in that textbook. I have found the study guide really helpful, though. I'm not sure what text your class is using, but most text books have associated study guides that you can buy. Mine includes crossword puzzles using key terms, matching, and NCLEX-style questions. I've found it to help clarify the info in the text.

cjillson7030 · Feb 28, 2010

I'm going to try all advice given, thanks a lot for your help.

trae55 · Feb 28, 2010

I'm taking pharm right now, too. I heard it was easy, but I'm finding it's a lot of information that's not easy to process like the science classes. For my first test I memorized everything because I didn't know what it would be like. I was thinking I could relax and just study what the tests cover from here on out. Nope. My instructor tested us on everything! She does let us use our drug books, but the only two questions I missed were adverse effects of specific drugs that was not in my book. They were listed on my drug sheet handout. Now I know to cross reference the book with her drug sheet. I had studied adverse effects of the drug class and that wasn't good enough for this class. So, in my long drawn out way , I guess I'm saying it depends on your instructor.

CuriousMe · Feb 28, 2010

I'm taking pharm right now, too. I heard it was easy, but I'm finding it's a lot of information that's not easy to process like the science classes. For my first test I memorized everything because I didn't know what it would be like. I was thinking I could relax and just study what the tests cover from here on out. Nope. My instructor tested us on everything! She does let us use our drug books, but the only two questions I missed were adverse effects of specific drugs that was not in my book. They were listed on my drug sheet handout. Now I know to cross reference the book with her drug sheet. I had studied adverse effects of the drug class and that wasn't good enough for this class. So, in my long drawn out way , I guess I'm saying it depends on your instructor.

Wow!! you can use drug books?

Our exams are cumulative as well. Actually we were told that every exam we take is cumulative for the program....so not just for a specific course, anything we've learned in any nursing class is fair game for an exam. :uhoh3:

trae55 · Feb 28, 2010

We can use our drug books, but they aren't much help to be honest. She lists all correct answers to the question, but she wants the one it's most used for, which is from our text. There were a lot of F's the last test (her words). A lot of people didn't even finish because they were spending too much time trying to find the answer in the book. I really didn't use it that much. When I did use it I missed the question because it wasn't even in the book.