1st quarter of nursing courses: Health Assessment and Pharmacology

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Hello everyone,

I'm new here and I'm just getting the hang of everything. Please bare with me. Today started my first quarter of nursing classes and I have Health Assessment and Pharmacology. I am extremely nervous and super excited at the same time. I have heard so many horror stories about these course and my instructor told me that everything we heard was true. We only have 12 weeks, a test every two weeks, and our first test is on Chapters 1-7 on next Monday. I want to be a nurse and succeed so bad. Does anyone have any advice or stories about how they got through these classes or what they plan to do to get through these classes?

*All study tips and advice will be greatly appreciated!

Thanks 8)

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Form a study group, I liked using Fundamentals Success to prepare for tests. Don't listen to what you hear about a course/instructor. I found if I went in with an open mind and was prepared for class those scary stories were not true at all. I made nursing school my own experience. It is important to stay current on your readings, attend all lectures (or watch online if you are an online student). My courses had an online option, but the recorded lectures were available to everyone, so I would go back and listen to them while I went about cleaning the house or cooking dinner or even downloading lectures to listen to in my car on my commute to class.

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For me, it was not enough just to memorize information in Pharmacology. I had to change my way of studying to make sure I UNDERSTOOD how the medications worked and effected the whole body. You do not need to memorize lists of side effects, just learn physiologically how the medicine works in the body and you can figure out the side effects.

Also look for patterns. I am not sure if you are learning all the drugs in a class or just the prototype. Many drug classes have the same suffix. Beta Blockers -olol lipid lowering -statin.

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All the comments above are such good, positive suggestions! Assessment really is not that bad. It's mainly about skills. I felt like that class did not have the application style questions as much as adult health 1 and 2. This is only my personal opinion though. We did not take pharmacology the first semester, so I had an advantage. We had clinical and some of these drugs I saw in doctors orders and such. Like the PP, suffixes help a lot!!! Thiazides = diuretics. It's a specific type. Just figure out a pattern and the function that they play in the body. You know the function, side effects make sense such as beta blockers. You have selective and non-selective. You have beta sites in your heart and lungs. Beta blockers slow your heart rate. So if they are nonselective a side effect is going to be that you have decreased RR rate as well as heart rate. Selective effects the heart only. Just learn how to tie it all together! I LOVED pharm.. I aced that class no problem. I took it over the summer though where it was my primary focus.

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Thanks everyone!!

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This fall I am taking similar courses (nervous like you); Introduction to Health Assessment, Foundations of Nursing Practice, Nursing Care of the Older Adult, Clinical Reasoning and Chemical Therapeutics (Pharmacology). This semester will definitely be a tough one, I'm not expecting to have much of a social life, but I just keep telling myself that if we made it this far, we can keep going! Good luck everyone!

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i'm taking pharm and health assessment starting tomorrow and like this student my first test will be on chapter's 1-7. i'm really nervous also. any tip and/or suggestions on making it through this qtr will be greatly appreciated.

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are you at Fortis Montgomery Campus? i'm there and this sounds VERY familiar. I'm struggling there. i'm taking pharm and Health assessment starting tomorrow morning and i'm praying that I make it through this qtr. I've already started with my lab manual. I've completed the first 7 chapters because i'm trying to stay ahead. if I get behind I know i'm a goner. any tips on the classes will be greatly appreaciated. stay in touch.

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