Remembering Med's

[FollowThru11]

I'm a first year nursing student and the hardest thing for me is remembering all the medications and side effects(particularly the s/e). I find it incredibly boring and I think I can't remember because I can't even pronounce most of the drugs. Does anyone have a particular way they studied? I took pharmacology but I didn't retain the information except for the easy stuff. Anything would help, thanks!

[wahwahgerman]

It helps to look up the meds and write out the drug action/side effects the night before clinicals (time consuming, but worth the effort). Also, when I'm at clinicals, I carry a timesheet (broken down by hour) with my medication administration times written in red. The time sheet also contains any therapies, etc., so it is a nice reminder throughout the day.

[CoffeemateCNA]

Your best bet to remember side effects is to break it down by drug class. Many of the drugs in each class have similar side effects. Then you can memorize the "exceptions" individually.

I made learning the drugs fun. Whenever I watched ER, I kept my drug book in my lap and looked up EVERY drug the doctors ordered and reviewed the class, dosage, side effects, etc. I had to be quick-fingered whenever a trauma came in. :) No, watching TV probably ISN'T the best way to learn, but it was fun to shake things up a little.

[FollowThru11]

Ok thanks, great advice!! I know I gotta do something to keep it interesting and fun!!

[semester1kid]

I'm sure you've been instructed at some point to write out drug cards...one of the hardest things for me (also as a first year student) is writing too much on the cards...for example, I think for Warfarin/Coumadin I wrote on both sides of three seperate 4x6 index cards...in that particular example (as far as listing nursing interventions), I think the problem was that even though I believe our instructors only wanted us to focus on checking PT levels before administering this treatment, I pretty much listed everything written in my drug book from the nursing intervention section:banghead:

One thing I did was also to buy premade drug cards and compare them to what I'm writing. So far (I've only used it for two cards), it works great, but you have to discipline yourself to only use the premade cards as a guide and not just to copy from them.

[Do-over, ASN, RN]

This may not be particularly helpful to you now, but I have found that the meds kind of "sink in" more as you go through the program - as you see them used and give them to your patients.

In the meantime, all I can suggest is do the best you can and hang in there... And buy one of the little drug books that fit in your pocket =)