Pharmacology or Pathophysiology

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Is it a bad idea to take Pharmacology before Pathophsiology? Are there key concepts that build on eachother? They only offer Pharmacology this semseter. I hope I can handle Pharmacology without patho. Can anybody advise me!? Thank you:uhoh3:

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Specializes in NICU.

I haven't taken either yet, so I can't help much, but I know that at my school patho is a pre req before taking pharm. In some cases they will allow students to take pharm without patho because of scheduling issues though. Is there an advisor that could help you?

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I wouldn't take pharm yet unless you have experience passing meds as a medication technician or at LEAST prior experience working in the medical field (or unless this is the ONLY time you can take the class and putting it off would set you behind).

Patho is the entire basis for pharm. You will be learning the diseases first, then which drugs are used to treat them.

By taking pharm first, you will just be memorizing a bunch of drugs, which won't make much sense to you, and you will have no idea about the diseases/symptoms you are treating with them.

Pharm is hard enough as it is. You need a solid patho foundation to really learn and understand the drugs.

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In my program we take half of pharm, then patho, then the rest of pharm. I think it depends on how the classes are taught. If patho is a prereq for pharm where you are, then pharm will probably be taught assuming you know all about patho and they won't give you much background information. On the other hand, it seems that most of the community colleges I've encountered teach them as independent courses.

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Specializes in IMCU.

I took pharm before pathophys. I wouldn't recommend it if you have a choice although your pathophys will include pharmacology. Why? because learning pharmacology as applied to conditions that I actually understand well made it easier for me to remember all the little details about actions and side effects etc. -- including the drug names. Otherwise pharmacology is awfully dry.

Our pharm class was actually a pre-requisite.

That is my 2 cents.

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Specializes in IMCU.
I wouldn't take pharm yet unless you have experience passing meds as a medication technician or at LEAST prior experience working in the medical field (or unless this is the ONLY time you can take the class and putting it off would set you behind).

Patho is the entire basis for pharm. You will be learning the diseases first, then which drugs are used to treat them.

By taking pharm first, you will just be memorizing a bunch of drugs, which won't make much sense to you, and you will have no idea about the diseases/symptoms you are treating with them.

Pharm is hard enough as it is. You need a solid patho foundation to really learn and understand the drugs.

Yep what she said.....

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Specializes in Ortho/Trauma.

I am taking pharm right now before pathio and it's not too bad...you just have to remember/understand your physiology. I agree that you would probably gain more by understanding the disease first before learning about the drugs used to treat it, but our teacher gives a pretty broad overview about the disease state before talking about the treatment.

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My pharm class did not include any patho review, as we were expected to already know this information. This could be different at your school, though, depending on whether patho is a pre-req for pharm. In general, I would say that taking pharm before patho is probably not a good idea, because patho provides the foundation for understanding pharm.

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Specializes in Junior Year of BSN.

Patho was a lot harder then Pharm so for me taking Pharm first wouldn't be that hard just understand your physiology and you will be fine. Once you get Med Surg and other clinicals you will be reviewing Pharm and Patho with each system anyways, so it's not a class you just learn once and that is it you need it through out your program. I think you will be fine with taking Pharm first.

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Specializes in being a Credible Source.

My feeling is that physiology is sufficient preparation for pharm. I'd have no qualms about taking pharm before patho.

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This program has it set in stone to take pharm before patho so it must be doable.

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Specializes in Critical Care, Emergency Medicine, Flight.

i just finished my Pharm class on thursday, and im taking patho in the fall, i have a A/B in the class , so it must not be too bad huh? :)

you'll be ok :)

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