Pharmacology

sgalvin07 · Dec 1, 2011

It's all in what kind of student you are and how you learn best. Pharm is one of the few nursing classes that unfortunately is based on memorization. Note cards, write it out 100 times, learn to associate them with things that will make you remember. It really is based on how you learn.

I'm one of the "lucky ones". I tend to have a photographic memory, I read it once and it sticks, visually I can almost read the exact page in my mind. However, there are so many drugs, and so many uses for the same medication that it doesn't always work. There are some drugs/ classes that I have associated with people that made it stick ( especially helpful with the psych drugs haha)......if none of that works then its simply repetitive, muscle memory....drill it in.

I also found it more helpful for me to exclude disease processes from learning drugs, as in a person with this disease takes this medicine.....because like I said above, so many drugs have different prescribing reasons.

Just kept trucking, do what works for you and what makes it click.

As far as the side effects go, focus on the "weird ones". Don't get caught up trying to remember that it causes nausea and vomitting....that's 99% of them it seems. However if it can cause respiratory depression, bruxism , tardive dyskinesia, or a cough( in terms of ace inhibitors), etc... that's where I focused when learning.

Take my 2 cents for what its worth, I still have plenty to learn, I graduate in march. Just sharing what has worked for me thus far.