Pharmacology made easy????

Woodenpug, BSN · Oct 31, 2010

The incredibly easy series is fantastic. The best part is the study tips in the first few chapters.

Davey Do · Oct 31, 2010

Cerda:

Wow. You are a real self-starter. Your answers are within your questions.

To be able to truly understand and have an appreciation for the way in which medications work, it would be a really good idea to have an understanding of the body's physiological processes.

All drugs do on the body, generally speaking, are act as inhibtors or catalysts. They either stop, slowdown, or speedup a naturally-occurring process. Of course there are exceptions to that rule. But it's a good starting point.

Hey- keep us aprised of your progress.

The best to you.

Dave

caliotter3 · Oct 31, 2010

Before you start in with the nitty gritty, you should get a foundation in biology, chemistry, anatomy, and physiology. That will keep your plate overflowing for quite some time. Good luck.

mauxtav8r · Oct 31, 2010

Caliotter3 makes an excellent point. If you lay the groundwork you in the science underlying the pharm you will find pharm much much easier.

JoblessNewGradRN · Oct 31, 2010

Good for you. I want to give you kudos for taking the initiative! It's a good idea to take notes. One thing that helped me in school was making study cards for medications. They included:

-the drug name (generic and brand names)

-the drug class

-indications for the drug

-how the drug works

-what to watch out for in the patient, etc.

I hope everything works out well for you! You seem very motivated and I am sure that you have a great future ahead of you! God bless.

KarmaWiseRaven · Oct 31, 2010

Ty Jobless, ( I hope you find work soon) I was going to tell her the same thing but one ( Foot Note) in the what you watch out for don't put vomiting. Any med can make any person do that. So get creative and look for other side effects in a patient. Oh one more thing get creative on your flash cards art work seems to helps when making them up. And choose colors that you can relate to for that certain drugs Like Narcs = Red Respiratory = blue and so on. That seemed to help me when i was learning pharmacology. Wow 16 good luck to you. These are my thoughts use them as you wish

Hospice Nurse LPN, BSN, RN · Oct 31, 2010

I agree with the posters that say to get a good foundation in chem, anatomy, and phys. It would be harder to understand what the drugs are doing to the body if you don't first understand what the body is supposed to be doing. good luck to you!

KarmaWiseRaven · Oct 31, 2010

I agree with all above and i failed to mention that as well. At Barns and Noble or Borders or really any book story they have anatomy, and physiology coloring books and i have used them in the past and its a great way to learn. Or if you like you can pic up anatomy, and physiology for dummies. ( Not calling you one ). another good thing. Gives you the basics. Good Luck to you..

bewitched · Oct 31, 2010

I'd also suggest taking Biology, Chemistry, and Anatomy&Physiology in high school if at all possible. Try to take these on an AP level to take the AP exams and get college credit for them! You don't need physics, but you do need to take at least through Algebra for math; I went up to Pre-Calculus, and find the medical math/calcs easy enough.

Good for you for being self-initiating, I was like that in high school! College courses couldn't come soon enough for me. :)

JoblessNewGradRN · Nov 3, 2010

Ty Jobless, ( I hope you find work soon) I was going to tell her the same thing but one ( Foot Note) in the what you watch out for don't put vomiting. Any med can make any person do that. So get creative and look for other side effects in a patient. Oh one more thing get creative on your flash cards art work seems to helps when making them up. And choose colors that you can relate to for that certain drugs Like Narcs = Red Respiratory = blue and so on. That seemed to help me when i was learning pharmacology. Wow 16 good luck to you. These are my thoughts use them as you wish

Thanks. You're totally right about the nausea tip. N/V/D or "nausea, vomiting, diarrhea" applies to just about 3/4 of the meds out there, lol. I like your tip about the color coding, too. I did that!