Pharmacology

pagandeva2000, LPN · Aug 5, 2006

I've heard people in here talking about the Pharmacology portion of their LVN/LPN training and how difficult it was.
I'm entering a program in the Spring and am curious what Pharmacology training for LVN/LPN's actually entails. Is it just a lot of rote memorization of medications and their Latin names? Are you really expected to memorize ALL of the medications that are out there? That would seem to be well nigh impossible!
Enlighten me people.
Barry

Pharmacology to me was a nightmare, but it was because I had a horrible instructor. It is not as bad if you group them into classifications, and notice certain things, like the suffixes of the medications. Ones that end in 'olol' such as metroprolol are beta blockers, ones that end in 'prils' are ace inhibitators... Unfortunately for me, this did not come until after I graduated. Delmar's Comprehensive Review for NCLEX-PN was very helpful with the groupings; they are very specific about the suffixes in their pharmacology chapter; and consider purchasing Nursing Pharmacology Made Incredibly Easy.

BBERFY · Aug 5, 2006

Pharmacology to me was a nightmare, but it was because I had a horrible instructor. It is not as bad if you group them into classifications, and notice certain things, like the suffixes of the medications. Ones that end in 'olol' such as metroprolol are beta blockers, ones that end in 'prils' are ace inhibitators... Unfortunately for me, this did not come until after I graduated. Delmar's Comprehensive Review for NCLEX-PN was very helpful with the groupings; they are very specific about the suffixes in their pharmacology chapter; and consider purchasing Nursing Pharmacology Made Incredibly Easy.

Thanks for the response. Sounds intimidating.

Are you really expected to memorize ALL of the Meds that are available or just some of the major ones?

chase4myheart · Aug 5, 2006

I finished pharmacology in the spring semester. We did have to remember some of the classifications of drugs, but mostly what it entailed was using formulas to check physician's orders for medication. It was up to us to determine if what the physician ordered was safe. Ultimately, when the nurse gives the med, she is the one responsible if there is an error. It involved looking the med up in the drug book to see what the safe dose was, taking what the physician ordered, and converting it to what you have available to give. Pharmacology really gives you the tools to protect yourself, and I think you will love it. No one person could ever memorize every drug that it out there.

emllpn2006 · Aug 5, 2006

We did not have to memorize every drug out there but we did have to remember several. My personal opinion is pharm is as hard as the instructor wants it to be. We had on instructor who was incredibly hard. We had lists of 40-50 drugs to memorize everythig about then only half would be on the test. Most people in my class were getting by but that was about it. THen due to unfortinate circumstances this instructor was out for part of the year and the instructor that taught was wonderful. She would still give us a list of drugs but we would only have aboud 10-15 to memorize at a time and the only questions she would ask were ones that were very specific to that drug.

pagandeva2000, LPN · Aug 6, 2006

Thanks for the response. Sounds intimidating.
Are you really expected to memorize ALL of the Meds that are available or just some of the major ones?

Sorry that it took so long for me to respond. No, I didn't (and still do not) know all of the drugs out there, but when you are reading your textbooks, they usually mention the most popular ones and I would start from there and group them. You may not really get what we mean until you actually take the course, but if you keep seeing them again and again, it is not THAT bad...

I just started orientation as a new nurse, and now, the studying has paid off...when I see the drugs, I have a basic idea how most of the common ones work, and those I don't, I have my pocket drug book handy to look it up before I administer it.

pagandeva2000, LPN · Aug 6, 2006

We did not have to memorize every drug out there but we did have to remember several. My personal opinion is pharm is as hard as the instructor wants it to be. We had on instructor who was incredibly hard. We had lists of 40-50 drugs to memorize everythig about then only half would be on the test. Most people in my class were getting by but that was about it. THen due to unfortinate circumstances this instructor was out for part of the year and the instructor that taught was wonderful. She would still give us a list of drugs but we would only have aboud 10-15 to memorize at a time and the only questions she would ask were ones that were very specific to that drug.

I can certainly identify with your comment...our instructor was a disaster, and what I learned from pharmacology was what I taught myself as time went on. Before I took the boards, I attended a one day pharmacology review course, and they also sold CDs that we can listen to. They grouped the drugs in classifications and gave us hints to the classifications based on the suffexies of the generic name. Made it easier. Now, what I do, is use my textbook and study guides to remember other details, now that I am a practicing nurse. It is true that you never stop studying as a nurse, and I have not thrown away any of my textbooks, thank goodness!