What to do while on waitlists?

[salsaking]

So what have you guys done while being on the never ending waitlists? It feels like such a waste of time, I'm considering just getting a BS in Biology while I wait and see what opportunities open up.

[Cosper123]

Thanks for all of the great ideas everyone is giving. I think I'll look into a Med Terminology course. Also... if I decided to start making flashcards of drugs, what would I need to put on those flashcards?

The absolute most important information for those cards, IMO, would be:

classification

side effects

safe dose range

generic name

nursing considerations

Reason being for generic name is you will see so many variations of a name brand, but the generic name is always the same. Knowing the medications by their generic name means you always know what that med is.

Side effects should be a no brainer

Safe dose range, also no brainer

Classification is important because there are always new medications coming out. Even if you are not familiar with the name of a new med, you can know a lot about that med if you know, for example, that it is an analgesic or NSAID.

For example, say someone tells you that they are Contin or Roxanol or Kadian...and each of these names are drawing a blank. Then that person tells you it's an opiod analgesic and automatically you realise that you need to monitor that patient's respiratory rate. The same goes for if you knew that medication by it's generic name....Morphine.

Nursing considerations are extra things you want to keep in mind when administering this medication such as contraindications or precautions. For example, you wouldn't want to give someone with a low resp rate the morphine....or the patient with the systolic blood pressure of 80 his blood pressure medication....or the patient with the loose stool their stool softner....or the patient with the low blood sugar their insulin.

All of this sort of stuff is what your nursing instructors will be looking for to make sure you are safe and knowledgable. Passing medications was a BIG anxiety issue for everyone in the first semester, and for many others going into the second semester. Getting a lot of this information under your belt now will go a long way in making you confident and compitent.

Just don't get too comfortable, that's when mistakes happen :)