Pharmacology is kicking my butt!! Help!

racquetmom · Jul 24, 2010

Go into the post below yours. I think new student nurse looking for nursing notes. It is in a link in VickyRN's response. Click on her link and Daytonite posts websites for pharm help.

nicetomeetyou · Jul 24, 2010

Its impossible to know what every single medication does, so you need to learn the major classifications of each medication (positive inotrope, beta-blocker, benzodiazepine, etc...) and learn general side effects of each. There are some drugs that have specific indications that you definitely need to watch out for. Like lithium: monitor sodium levels... etc. Or lisinopril has a side effect of a cough, so monitor people who have asthma and take it and etc... It all just takes time.

Isitpossible, LPN, LVN · Jul 26, 2010

avaloncar: I'm in the same boat..pharm is really kicking my butt! My goodness, I never had this much difficulty with any class...i changed my study ways and third test finally got an 85! I have one more test..Im shooting for 100 this time as my average from the first two tests is weighing me down..

Despareux · Jul 27, 2010

Our teacher told us to read each chapter THREE times. So I did, and it helped tremendously. If I came across information I had a hard time understanding, instead of just reading through the chapter, I would analyze every single sentence, visualize, take notes in my book, draw it out, and use my A&P book when needed. Sometimes I would end up reading parts of a chapter maybe 5 or 6 times until I understood it.

Are you writing up drug cards? Writing my own drug cards helped me to the point that I barely had to reference my drug cards.

Understanding pharmacology, in my opinion, is understanding the way the body utilizes characteristics of the drug (capsule, injection, sublingual, etc...), the potential side effects based on what the drug is targeting, and contraindications. Even my own doctor has to reference his drug book.

It's a tough course. It's one of those classes where it seems you have to submerge yourself.

Be the essence of perseverance--that's what I used to tell myself when things got tough.

Pneumothorax, BSN, RN · Aug 9, 2010

i dont know if you've had a chance to do clinicals yet OP, but when you can match a medlist to a patient and recognize the drugs i think it helps to remember more.

you'll never memorize everything, you just have to take it one step at a time.

if there is a particular group of drugs that you like... spend some time researching them. and you'll be surprised how much you remember :)

Christina08 · Aug 10, 2010

Hi, I have some good notes on pharm or you can go scribd and search yourself. good luck!

imaginethat · Aug 11, 2010

I was having trouble with pharmacology this year and bought "nursing pharmacology made incredibally easy" and ok soo it wasnt incredibally easy! but it definately helped lots! I also found that understanding the anatomy and physiology of a body system and the pathophysiology of the condition makes the pharmacology alot easier, usually i study all three together, helps me keep the study fatigue away too cause I'm going back and forth between the 3 subjects!! hope this helps!

jorjasmith · Aug 11, 2010

my anatomy and physiology book really helped me to visualize what was going on with the meds, as well as writing up flash cards.

calmynurse · Aug 12, 2010

yeah, pharmacology was an intense portion of my 2nd term but if you know the ending suffixes of the drugs, i find it's easier to classify them. ie. ace-inhibitors= ending in pril (lisinopril, captopril, ramipril) and beta blockers end in olol (Carvedolol) calcium channel blockers end in pine. just remember therer are some drugs that don't fit the the suffix models.

avaloncar, BSN, RN · Sep 17, 2010

Thank you guys!! Sorry for the late response...I have been "reading my chapters over three times"....and more lol!! Thanks for all of your help!! I got some A's on exams and I got two C's and a lot of B's. We had 8 exams with 25 questions so there was only a small amount of questions I could actually get wrong to not get a low score. I ended up getting a B in the class. I am on break now and looking forward to Pharm 2, I heard its easier and since I developed my own way of studying I think I will be just fine!!