Pharmacology Help

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Hi, I was in the Nursing Program last year but i failed the Pharmacology class. I luckily got a second chance and got back into the program. But, i would like to be successful this time around. What materials did you use? What helped you the most? Any tips would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks!

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There are a lot of threads on this tropic already but I will give you the gist of what works for me. FYI I got an 98% in my online accelerated Pharm class over the summer. So reading the assigned chapters is always a great place to start. If you have the time read the whole chapter or, if not, just read the Bolded , ​Italicized, and Underlined words. Be able to define them and explain them in your own words. I prefer to read out loud to myself. This allows me to see and hear the information at the same time. Its a dynamic way to process new info. Youtube is a great tool as well. Picmonic has a great pharm lecture that goes over lots of high yield stuff. There is literally an endless amount of pharm content on youtube. You just need to filter through what your professor is finding impoertant.

Understand what you professor is trying to emphasize. If your professor is a nurse and your class is geared towards nursing pharm, then you will need to know specific things related to that such as Patient education, nursing implications, drug to drug/drug food/drug to chem/drug interactions, routes of administration, side effect, adverse reactions, contraindications and so forth. If you are not in a nursing emphasized pharm class you may not need to study any of that.

Brush up on your patho! If you know the disease process the rug will make more sense. For instance why are HCTZ given for HTN normally? When is it contraindicated? How do the Lytes change with this med? To be able to understand these concepts I need to communicate with someone about them. Talking with class mates or professors about these drugs will got me familiar with them.

Also go over the high yield drug classifications and suffixes For example -olol, -sartan, -pril, -pam/-zolam ect.

Also check out Digoxin, Theophyline, lithium They all have narrow therapeutic ranges. Know what they are.

Learn everything you can about insulin, rapid acting Humalin R, NPH, 70/30, lantis. Know sliding scale., Understand these things such that you can explain them to someone who doesn't know about them, like a lay person or patient.

This is all just kind of off the top of my head, feel free to PM me if you have specific questions.

Best of luck to you!

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Specializes in Med-Tele; ED; ICU.

I found Lippincott's Illustrated Review of Pharmacology to be very useful for the fundamentals and flashcards built off of the ATI review to memorize the details. If you're not using ATI in your program (and I thought it wasn't terribly helpful), use Davis's Drug Guide for Nurses to build your flashcards.

This thread has an excellent set although creating your own cards facilitates retention: https://allnurses.com/nursing-student-assistance/pharmacology-flashcards-595483.html

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Thank you so much! This such a huge help, I am still trying to figure out this site, so i apologize for this repeated post!

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