Study tips for Pharmcology?

[NewGradRN96]

Hello!

My program combines Pharmacology and Pathophysiology into one class, so it's a little rough. I took part 1 of pharm/patho last semester and did really well, however I am struggling with part 2 of pharm/patho. The tests have gotten harder and contain 7-8 select all that apply questions out of 25 questions, which is a lot I feel. At this point I feel like I will not succeed if I don't find another way to study before finals. Does anyone have any study tips on recognizing symptoms associated with drugs?

[medbullet]

It's a bit difficult to provide great advice about studying for your course in general because courses are very different between institutions and individual instructors in terms of what aspects of pharm or pathophys they decide to focus more heavily on. In terms of recognizing symptoms (I assume you actually meant to say side effects); you can group meds based on the characteristics which give them similar S/E profiles. For example, group by mechanism of action, chemical structure, etc. Mostly it is just important to understand WHY a medication may result in a particular side effect; is there a sulfa component or similar structure as in certain antibiotics and HCTZ; does it result in disulfiram reaction (as in antabuse or metronidazole)?; does it act at D2 receptors peripherally?.. I don't know how much detail you are expected to know at your level so take this advice and modify it for your specific situation. Additionally, there are some great and actually very entertaining resources out there that you can purchase to help with learning this type of info. For example, KISSprep is a rapid review resource that some medical students use during the basic sciences which has a series of pharm videos which hammer the info into you in a very intense and entertaining way. Good luck.

[NewGradRN96]

It's a bit difficult to provide great advice about studying for your course in general because courses are very different between institutions and individual instructors in terms of what aspects of pharm or pathophys they decide to focus more heavily on. In terms of recognizing symptoms (I assume you actually meant to say side effects); you can group meds based on the characteristics which give them similar S/E profiles. For example, group by mechanism of action, chemical structure, etc. Mostly it is just important to understand WHY a medication may result in a particular side effect; is there a sulfa component or similar structure as in certain antibiotics and HCTZ; does it result in disulfiram reaction (as in antabuse or metronidazole)?; does it act at D2 receptors peripherally?.. I don't know how much detail you are expected to know at your level so take this advice and modify it for your specific situation. Additionally, there are some great and actually very entertaining resources out there that you can purchase to help with learning this type of info. For example, KISSprep is a rapid review resource that some medical students use during the basic sciences which has a series of pharm videos which hammer the info into you in a very intense and entertaining way. Good luck.

Yes haha I meant to say *side effects! Whoops. Thanks for the tips!! I will definitely do what you said for when I start studying for the final. I appreciate it :)

[adiaz6, ASN, BSN]

I always learned the generic name to every drug versus the brand name. Same class drugs usually end with the same. Like beta blockers end in lol. Etc. Good luck!

[Rionoir, ADN, RN]

Picmonic. :)