Pharmacology VS dosage calculations class?

[fnlyRNstudent05]

I know this may sound absurd but I was wondering if anyone can explain the difference between a pharmacology class and a dosage calc. class? I go to a community college and we don't have a specific pharmacology class... it is a part of our lecture when we need to be educated on drugs (ie:when we learned about elderly and drug absorbtion we had to learn several beta blockers etc.), and we make medication flash cards for our assigned patients. Before each semester we have to take a test to show that we can safely admin. drugs/IV's and before the program we had the option of taking a class or self study for how to determine correct dosages.

My question is: what is this mysterious Pharmacology class and am I missing an oportunity to learn something by not having this class in my course guide? for those of you who know the differnce can you explain it and tell me if it would be to my benifit to study it on my own over summer break?

Thanks!

[suzanne4, RN]

For your dosage calculation class, it is strictly doing math problems, remember your algebra classes from school. How you would give 560 mg of a drug, if you have 750 mg in a vial, or how you would give 2 mg from a 5 mg tablet, etc. Things like that.

Pharmacology is the study of how a drug works, what its action would be, etc. When it works, how long that it lasts, etc.

You may not have a specific pharmacology class in your program, but will be given the information when you are studying a specific area while you are in school. Such as for geriatrics, you may see drugs that are routinely given to older patients, cardiac would also give you the cardiac drugs.

[Daytonite, BSN, RN]

Years ago when I was in school these two subjects: pharmacology and dosage calculations were two separate subjects that were taught within the nursing program. Some schools have now either put both together in one class, or into two separate classes. Depends on the program. Both subjects are important, however, and will be taught to nursing students one way or another in their programs.

[wonderbee, BSN, RN]

In the program I graduated from, dosage calculation was self-study. We were directed to tools that could be purchased or accessed from the library. Pharmacology was a 2-credit, first semester nursing school class that informed us of the properties of the drugs we would be administering. It is now a 3-credit class. I liked the idea of having pharamcology as a separate class.

[AmyLiz]

Our school has two distinct classes. Pharm - to learn the different classifications of drugs and how they work in the body...and "Nursing Math" - which would be the same as "dosage calc", where you learn how to calcate med dosage, IV drip rates, etc. The first is tough...a lot of physiology and biochemistry in it, the second...I thought was fairly simple. Just math...simple algebra mostly. A lot of ratios.

[fnlyRNstudent05]

Thanks for explaining this to me guys. We don't have a seperate Pharm class at my school but we are given instructions and we learn on our own through looking up drugs and making "drugcards" for patients. I just felt out of the loop when people mentioned a pharm. class.

I do feel that I should have this class though, so I'm thinking about taking it online over the summer as a distance learning course. Have any of you done this and where can I find a course like that online?