What are drug cards for??

I hear alot of talk about them here, what is their purpose? We have our first med check offs and I have to look up and list side effects/ purpose..blah, blah..of about 20 drugs. Is this why people make cards?

My instructor says that maybe we should start storing this info in our computer so we don't have to keep looking it up, especially for the careplans. I have heard this here before too. But, I am not very IT oriented. How do I store these? Just type it out in Word or what? Can you buy something with this info?

This is all very new to me and I don't know what the best way to proceed is. If I look it up once I would like some way to just go out and retrieve the info come clinical time. Any help would be soooo appreciated. :) Thanks!

[twinmommy+2, ADN, BSN, MSN]

Yeah, med cards are a good way to make you read the information, write it, and commit it to memory. I like to make a template of what information I need on a med card, and save the template to the computer. Then I can just put the info in the right spots and save each individual med card. I've also seen some students keep them on index cards in a little index card keeper.

[jerryh55]

We use FA Davis, and it has a cd with it. Once you install it, you can pull it up and go straight to the drug and print it. Has made the drug stuff on care plans much easier. What drug book are you using ??

Jerry

[S.N. Visit, BSN, RN]

I'm just finishing up my Pharm class (one week to go .) Our instructor insisted on us making our cards on 3x5 index cards, and they had to be hand written. We will hopefully use them for our clinical settings.

[lisamc1RN, LPN]

We are required to write up med cards on 5x8 index cards. If our patient has 25 drugs that they get, we write out 25 med cards with the following info on them: Drug Name, Drug class, Indications, Dose, Contraindications, Side Effects, and Nursing Implications. Once the drug card is written, we can use it over again if our next patient uses the medicine. :)

[Nrs_angie, BSN, RN]

Hello,

I just read all the posts and med cards sound alot better than what we do at my school. In our Nurisng 100 and 101 courses we were required to write them on sheets of paper... which were very clumbsy especially if you wanted to refer to them on the floor... paging through pages takes alot more time than flipping through index cards. So I will suggest this to the instructors.

To answer the question... How do you save them to your computer?

Well I will try my best to explain this: Ok... if you have a program like microsoft word or works... or even windows Notepad would work....

You click on File then Save AS... and choose the location you want to save it... save it in a location that you will remember.... I made a special folder for clinical stuff under my documents... but you can also just save it to your desktop... then it will be easy to find in a pinch...

If you are still having trouble with the computer... go to your school library or go to a public library and ask them how do you save a file... they will show you.

Good Luck,

Angie

I hear alot of talk about them here, what is their purpose? We have our first med check offs and I have to look up and list side effects/ purpose..blah, blah..of about 20 drugs. Is this why people make cards?

My instructor says that maybe we should start storing this info in our computer so we don't have to keep looking it up, especially for the careplans. I have heard this here before too. But, I am not very IT oriented. How do I store these? Just type it out in Word or what? Can you buy something with this info?

This is all very new to me and I don't know what the best way to proceed is. If I look it up once I would like some way to just go out and retrieve the info come clinical time. Any help would be soooo appreciated. :) Thanks!

[futureOHrn]

med cards, although a pain in the butt to write out, seem to be the one kind thing our instructors make us do...especially since the alternative would be to memorize all the information before each clinical.

our instructors drill us on the meds, compatibilities, dosages, etc each time before we pass meds, and we are able to use our cards.