Pharmacology

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:uhoh3:Need some advice,,, what do you students think about taking this class online vs in class room? I have never taken a class online, BUT I heard this class is easier online vs in class? Please help?? If I take it online I can share a ride with another student instead of driving by my self? worried:uhoh21:

tina

Specializes in SICU/CVICU.

I would highly recommend taking the class online. I took it online about a year ago and did very well in the class. Since it is mostly reading and memorization anyway, I found it pointless to go to lecture and have someone tell me what to read and memorize. There is A LOT of information, but you stay on top of it then you should be able to do it. My tests were in a testing center, so there was no looking at the book. I would imagine if you took the class online where your tests were online (they are usually timed), it would be a very easy class...

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catzy5. . .I'm looking at the PowerPoint lectures I still have on a flashdrive from the class and they were pretty well organized. We started out with general information about how drugs in general affect the body and then went into

  • Autonomic Nervous System Drugs (this was probably the most confusing for everyone and is usually the first group covered in every pharmacology class!)
  • Drugs affecting the Central Nervous System (sedatives, hypnotics, antipsychotics, antianxiety, antidepressants, psychomotor stimulants, psychomimetrics, antiepileptics, antiparkisonians, general anesthetics, opiods and non-opiods)
  • Pharmacology of the Heart (cardiac glycosides, treatment of congestive heart failure and MIs, antiarrhythmics, and antianginals)
  • Pharmacology of the Vascular and Renal Systems (diuretics, antihypertensives, sympathetic blocking agents, vasodilators, calcium antagonists, ACE inhibitors, anticoagulants, coagulants, thrombolytic agents, statins, antianemics)
  • Nutrition and Therapy (vitamins, minerals, lipids and electrolytes)
  • Pharmacology of the Respiratory System (don't have that PowerPoint)
  • Pharmacology of the GI System (don't have that PowerPoint)
  • Pharmacology of the Endocrine System (adrenal steroids, gonadal hormones, drugs affecting thyroid/parathyroid and bone degeneration, pancreatic hormones, antidiabetic drugs, pituitary hormones, drugs affecting the uterus)
  • Pharmacology of Infectious Diseases (antibacterials, antifungals, antivirals, AIDS, antiprotozoals, antihelmintics, antiseptics, disinfectants)
  • Antineoplastics/Immune System Drugs (chemotherapeutic agents, immunosuppressive and immunostimulant drugs)

The course was basic overviews of how the various drug classes work on these body systems to produce their effects and correct various disease conditions that occurred in those body systems. It was like the underlying pathophysiology and how the drug worked to correct it. This is an important component in understanding why drugs are ordered for certain conditions that patients have.

I am willing to e-mail the PowerPoint lectures I do have, but they are on PDF files and usually take several e-mails in order to send them. Also, the focus of my course was for ICD-9 medical diagnosis coding, not nursing so nursing implications are not there. However, the basics pertaining to some of the medical diseases is there, particularly the more common medical diseases that you are going to see time and time again in hospital patients. You also need to keep in mind that these lectures were made by a coding instructor, not a nursing instructor, but they still have very good information on them. Send me a PM if you are interested in having them.

Thank you so much! That is the information I was looking for, I am not going to try and study the whole book but wanted to get a jump start on what we will start off with, I guess the Autonomic system is the best place huh? lol.

Thanks for the offer of the notes, I think I will have enough though with reading the book, I was just trying to find a starting point, it's all so overwhelming.

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Specializes in med/surg, telemetry, IV therapy, mgmt.

catzy5. . .some of what I am telling you may not make a lot of sense right now because you are not in nursing classes yet, but for the critical thinking part of the problem solving process of nursing (the nursing process) you need to know how drugs work in a person's system so you know how they are correcting or altering things. Part of understanding how to answer the kinds of questions you will get later in nursing classes and on the NCLEX exam will go back to some of the information you will be learning in this class.

The drugs of the autonomic system include the drugs that affect the sympathetic, parasympathetic and autonomic ganglia as well as skeletal muscle relaxants. They can be confusing because the anti- types of one classification have the same effects as the positive effects of another classification and it's very easy to get them mixed up. This is usually the hardest and most confusing section of pharmacology for most. Make flashcards for it.

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catzy5. . .some of what I am telling you may not make a lot of sense right now because you are not in nursing classes yet, but for the critical thinking part of the problem solving process of nursing (the nursing process) you need to know how drugs work in a person's system so you know how they are correcting or altering things. Part of understanding how to answer the kinds of questions you will get later in nursing classes and on the NCLEX exam will go back to some of the information you will be learning in this class.

The drugs of the autonomic system include the drugs that affect the sympathetic, parasympathetic and autonomic ganglia as well as skeletal muscle relaxants. They can be confusing because the anti- types of one classification have the same effects as the positive effects of another classification and it's very easy to get them mixed up. This is usually the hardest and most confusing section of pharmacology for most. Make flashcards for it.

Great advice Daytonight thank you. I am going to be looking up these topics first. I got mosby's pharmacology note cards, I notice they go into the groupings or classifications, so I am trying to understand these, in hopes they will help me once I learn about each drug. I am "assuming" that is sort of how it must work?

Catherine

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Specializes in med/surg, telemetry, IV therapy, mgmt.

good luck! i have a feeling you'll do alright in the class as you seem to be very motivated. you may find it a bit overwhelming because most of it will be theory and you won't be seeing any patients to help you actually see these drugs in action. don't throw your textbook away. you'll want to refer back to it on occasion when you start doing clinicals to explain some of what you are seeing happening to patients. also, something that was made very clear to us in my coding classes (and they don't talk about this a lot in nursing class) is that a lot of elderly people end up in the hospital as a result of the side effects or overdosage of their medications. this is a known fact because medicare tracks this information and it is given to medicare by their doctors! this is one reason why medication errors has been given so much exposure and attention. it is also why you are going to find that you will probably have to get a certain passage rate on drug calculation problems in nursing school. this has become a very big issue in nursing and pharmacy. allnurses has a forum about drug issues: med savvy at https://allnurses.com/forums/f279/

when i was taking my recent pharmacology class i made a sheet for each major drug classification that included on it: action, use, side effects, contraindications, interactions, and the names of some of the drugs in that class. these were based on notes i took from the textbook, my nursing drug reference book (i've been an rn for many years and always have an updated one) and from a website that i often referred to (http://www.pharmacology2000.com/learning2.htm). you can see one or two of these sheets i made if you like. i only made them for the nervous system drugs because they were so confusing even to me.

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(http://www.pharmacology2000.com/learning2.htm). you can see one or two of these sheets i made if you like. i only made them for the nervous system drugs because they were so confusing even to me.

oh yes i would love too, if you have the time!

thanks for all your input i am very excited!

catherine

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Daytonite = I have been following this thread as I, too, am trying to get a jump start on Pharm (planning to get Pharmocology Made Incredibly Easy when it goes on sale at the local bookstore 12/6). Your posts have been very helpful!

If you wouldn't mind, I'd also love to see an example of one of your spreadsheets you mentioned. I made a bunch of posters for getting through Patho because my brain does better when I organize data visually so I think a spreadsheet would be right up my alley! I've started a shell based on your post but would love to see just an example of what you did to see if I'm on the right track. :)

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