question re: meds on nclex that you have never heard of?

Published

I just recently started studying again for my attempt # 2 at NCLEX and I remember from the first time I had kind of a lot of meds I had never heard of (obviously I am studying pharm better this time!!) and the question did not contain a hint of what the med could be for. Does anyone have any hints on how to answer or guess on these med questions?

And furthermore, does anyone have any good tips on how to study all meds effectively?

Specializes in Telemetry & Obs.

Knowing the -prils, -lols, etc works IF you have meds with a recognisable suffix. On my NCLEX-RN there were names of meds I'd never heard of without a single clue what they were or why they were given. I totally guessed, yet I passed.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

Thank you for the list and for all of the feedback from everyone!

Up Vote Up Vote ×

I've read a lot of people getting not so common drugs on their nclex from here so I was really nervous before I took my test. But what came out on mine were pretty common drugs, some you usually see on commercial ads. I feel like I failed because I tjoml the pharm questions that I got were easy compared to what the others had.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

Know the common drugs like they listed but also know your antituberculosis drugs, major oncology drugs ie)vincristine, tamoxifen etc.. and drugs for arrythmias such as quinidine, amiodarone, hydralazine, verapamil and diltiazem I wouldnt go that into detail just look at the main antidysrythmic (hope I spelled that right) drugs for sure becase I had a few on the nclex!

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Critical Care.
sue's totally right about the suffixes. i worked in long term care passing about 1,000 medications to residents a week so pharmacology was easy for me.

here's a list though, it's on other parts of all nurses as well:

medication suffixes

(-olol) beta 1 blockers (adrenergic)

(-cillin) antibiotics

(-micin) antivirals, watch for ototoxicity

(-vastatin) antihyperlipidemia, antihypercholesterolimia

(-tidine) anti-ulcerant, h2 receptor antagonist; preventive treatment, no signs of ulcers

(-pine) ca-channel blocker, htn affects the blood vessel of heart

(-rin) anticoagulant,

(-dol) non-opioid analgesic

(-done) opioid analgesics

(-sone) corticosteroids, anti-inflammatory

(-nitrate) anti-anginal, vasodilator

(-nol) antigout

(-mine) anti-histamine

(-sartan) ace ii antagonist,

(-kinase) anti-thrombolitic, thrombolitic agent

(-pril) ace i inhibitors, anti htn

(-mide) loop diuretics

(-lactone) potassium-sparing diuretics

(-prazole) proton-pump inhibitors;

(-pium) relaxes bronchi

(-aluminum, magnesium, hydroxide) antacids

(-zepam, -lam) anti-anxiety, major tranquilizers

(caine) local anesthetics

(-ide) oral hypoglycemics

(-nium) neuromuscular blocking agent

(-vir) antivirals

don't crush er, cr, ec (extended release, controlled release or enteric coated)

there are a few errors in your list.

-olol is all beta blockers, not just the b1-specific. for instance, propranolol and nadolol are non-selective beta blockers.

-micin are not antivirals. they're (along with -mycin) aminoglycoside antibiotics: gentamicin, tobramycin, vancomycin, etc.

calcium channel blockers' suffix is actually -dipine, not -pine. atropine, for instance, is most certainly not a calcium channel blocker. also, that's just one subclass of ccbs. -pamil is the suffix of another class, and then diltiazem makes up its own class.

another category popping up lately is the monoclonal antibodies-- these typically end in -mab (easy enough).

Up Vote Up Vote ×
+ Join the Discussion