Pharm woes

[number41]

Help

I just can't seem to remember a lot of pharm. I usually don't have memorization problems but this is killing me. We never had a class dedicated to it in my program. It was peppered into each course. Does anyone have any tips on remembering all of this madness? I've heard "just remember the category".. I've heard "don't bother it's a small fraction of the test".. I don't know what to do. I won't blow it off, I already failed once, but I can't seem to make it stick. Suggestions?

[swansonplace]

For drugs, I learned them by making up little stories about each area. I would remember the story, and the side effects by drawing pictures, and making up stories that I would tell my friends and family.

Flash cards that I made were also helpful.

I use Feuer Pharm review to review for the nclex.

Also, learning the most common endings, and the most common drugs and their classification helps, and the antidotes.

[LeeLeeTheGPN]

I would suggest learning the suffixes associated to common drug classes. For instance, drugs ending in -pine are usually Calcium Channel Blockers. Drugs ending in -pril are ACE Inhibitors. Drugs ending in -ide are usually diuretics. There are many others, but you get the gist of it. That really has helped me to be very good with my medications. I passed my school's Pharmacology HESI with over 94% accuracy and Pharm class with an A so I think it has definitely been a successful intervention lol Good luck! You will crack those medications don't worry.

[number41]

Thanks so much, great suggestions. I'll combine the suffix idea with the stories :) Thanks again

[chicagoboy]

i second about the suffixes. I am studying for my second attempt and I may do flash cards with suffixes on front and lists of popular drugs, side effect, nursing care on reverse.

I find remembering suffixes works really well for me.

[number41]

I think it's helpful too b/c you can't know every drug.. so if you find yourself staring at one you might be able to figure out the side effect just based on the class/suffix

[DisneyNurseGal, BSN, RN]

See I disagree with what people are saying about memorizing and flash cards. There is a SMALL portion of memorizing common endings and such; however, I think the key to pharm is understanding the big picture.

Take a category for example... Beta Blockers. Understand HOW the medication works. Once you understand the action of the medication, think about the effect this CLASS of medication has on each organ system. Try concept mapping each classification (Google if you are not sure what a concept map is). If begin to understand HOW the medication works, then you can figure out what the side effects are. When you are in the clinical setting, every time you see a medication think about what classification it belong to, and after awhile your brain will start automatically making the connections.

My school does not have us memorize any drug names, we just focus on the classifications and it has really worked for us.