pharmacology in nursing school

How many of you had to take pharmacology as a prereq for your program? Our school does not require it and includes it within the nursing program. I find this frustrating as I have never heard of many of these drugs and think I would have benefited from atleast being introduced to them within classifications. Maybe I can get a petition going to replace chemistry for pharmacology as a nursing prereq :0). BTW, besides what we could probably learn in five minutes, why are we tourtured with chem, the hardest class many of us had to endure, when it's use withing nursing school (and I'm assuming nursing as a carreer), is so basic???? OK, that was off the subject. Just needed to vent :0). Back to the subject at hand, I would love to hear the insight all of you might have about the original subejct of pharmacology.

Court

[memphispanda, RN]

My pharmacology course was taught as part of the nursing curriculum. It was actually called "Nursing 2: Pharmacology" and was taught by several PharmDs from the hospital--each taught their area of expertise. It was a great course, but H A R D. However, if you are concerned, why not just take pharmacology on your own? It can't hurt (unless you get a terrible grade).

[2bPhD]

It is part of our program, however students must pass a pharm exam before they can give meds in clinical.

[live4today, RN]

Where I went to school, Pharm was a separate 4 credit hour course. The course had to be completed before we were allowed to take our first clinical rotation. It was taught by a PhD in Pharm who also wrote the book we had to buy for the class. I loved that class!

I recommend a petition to make your pharm course a separate course. You'll really really NEED to know pharm in nursing, especially today the way nursing is changingl.

[GraceyB]

I was wondering about this myself as my school does not require pharm at all. Not in the prerequisites, not in pre-clinical sequence.

[KristinWW]

Many schools used to require pharm before nursing entrance in the 80s I remember. I don't see that anymore.

[JB CC-RN]

Pharm is part of my BSN program. I took my pre-req's at a CC that did not offer pharm classes. Pharm is part of most programs here.

[iliel]

We take Pharm in our 1st semester of Nursing, but as for pre reqs, we are not req to take chem as part of the ADN. I will be taking it, however, so I can advance my degree....wish me luck, i'll need it!

[Love-A-Nurse]

we have to take pharm i and pharm ii in our program. i am in pharm ii now and it is overwhelming to say the least. it is fewer weeks during the summer and so much to learn during this time as opposite to taking it this coming fall.

yikes!

[babynursewannab]

We take pharm while we are in the clinical sequence. Due to time constraints, they pack a full year of it into 1 semester. It was the first time in my life I ever felt "brain-meltdown". I swore it was oozing out my ears!

[twarlik]

Gosh, pharmacology sounds like a whole lot of fun the way you all describe it! LOL

I'm taking it next semester and it's only a one credit course, one hour a week. I can't imagine how much information they could possibly cram into such a short class. I guess I'll find out...

[zambezi, BSN, RN]

I think that thaking pharmacology is a necessity for todays nurse. The class itself is a catch-22 in my eyes. You have to (or should) take it prior to clinical work so you are familiar with what you are administering, but it is so much easier to understand and even like after you are exposed to it a bit (after you see how the drugs work, they are easier to understand, more fun to learn about, and even easier to learn). Anyway, I hated the class when I was in it, but it was very helpful and very important in the real world.