Pharmacology is one of the hardest subjects you’ll learn in nursing school.
There’s are a gazillion meds out there, and it can be SUPER overwhelming to figure out how to learn them all, and learn them FAST so you can get on with your life.
In this video, I’m giving you the step-by-step process that I followed in nursing school to help me learn medications FAST.
HERE’S A BREAKDOWN OF WHAT WE’LL TALK ABOUT:
Step #1: List out all the medications you need to know and divide them up by drug CLASS (1:57)
Step #2: Learn the mechanism of action of the drug CLASS (not each individual medication) (4:51)
Step #3: Create med cards with all the info you need to know about the drug class (5:22)
Step #4: Make med cards for the individual medications you need to know (but trust me – you’ll already know most of it by now!) (6:15)
And don’t forget to snag the FREE CHEAT SHEET!
VIDEO TRANSCRIPT
In this video, I’m going to tell you the ONE thing you absolutely need to STOP doing when studying pharmacology in nursing school. Listen up, friend. Because this one tip is going to save you about a gazillion hours studying in nursing school.
That’s extra time you have to spend with your family, your kiddos, and maybe even get a nap in.
So seriously, don’t miss this. I’m also going to give you my step-by-step process for studying pharmacology that will really help make learning medications way easier for you. Now hit that subscribe button and click the notification bell and let’s dive in.
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Pharmacology is one of the hardest subjects you’ll learn in nursing school. And it’s not just a one and done class. You give meds every, single day at clinical and as a nurse. So it’s going to follow you wherever you go, so you’ve got to know your stuff!
There’s are a gazillion meds out there, and it can be SUPER overwhelming to figure out how to learn them all, and learn them FAST so you can get on with your life.
So I’m going to give you the step-by-step process that I followed in nursing school to help me learn medications faster.
If you’re a NursingSOS Member, make sure to log-into your dashboard and check out the “How To Study Pharmacology” course, which will walk you through even more tips and tricks for learning medications faster.
Now to make this process super smooth for you, I REALLY recommend you grab a drug guide. Most schools require them, so you probably have one already. If not, my favorite one is the Davis Drug Guide, so you can check that one out. It’s super easy to use, and it has all the info you need about each medication. It’s the one I used all through nursing school and beyond, I totally love it.
So step number 1 when studying pharmacology is to list out all the medications you need to know and divide them up by drug CLASS. So many nursing students don’t know this, but ALL of the medications in one drug class act the same way in the body. They have a similar mechanism of action, which means that they basically do the same thing.
So for example, the class of medications Beta Blockers latch onto beta receptors, and inhibit them. So they literally, BLOCK beta receptors. And beta receptors are usually responsible for increasing the heart rate and keeping the lung airways open. So when these receptors are blocked, those are flipped: the heart rate goes down and the airways narrow.
And there are a TON of beta blocker medications, like
- Metoprolol
- Atenolol
- Carvedilol
- Labetalol
- Bisoprolol
- All those -olols
So here’s the NUMBER ONE MISTAKE nursing students make when studying pharmacology, is that they try to memorize all the info for each individual medication. Which is a TOTAL waste of time because all of the medications within one drug class act similar in the body!
It’s like studying 12 things, when you can focus on studying only one. So this is the ONE thing you must stop doing when learning medications. Instead of memorizing everything there is to know about each individual medication, divide up the drugs you need to know and organize them by CLASS.
Now, if you noticed, all of those beta blocker medications have the same ending to them: -olol, like metoprolol, atenolol, and carvedilol. So what you’ll notice, is that many medications inside a particular drug class will have the same ending. And to make it super easy for you, I’ve listed a bunch of them out on a free cheat sheet for you. So you can just download that, and keep it with you as you study so you’ll be able to quickly recognize what medications go in which drug class. It’s super handy! The link is in the description for you to snag that.
Now we’ll get to step number 2, which is SUPER important, but first I want to give a shout out to our YouTube comment of the week from Giselle, which says,
“Was still confused about this until i watched your video! thank you so much! now im ready for my final :)”
Thank you so much Giselle for your sweet comment, I’m so happy our videos have helped you out, and good luck on your finals!
And keep your comments coming, friend. Not only do they tell YouTube that our videos are super cool and more people should see them, but they also give me great feedback for what videos you want to see more of, and I really love getting to know you!
Now, let’s move onto step number 2. In step number 2, you’ll learn the mechanism of action of the drug CLASS (not the mechanism of action for each individual drug). That’s a total waste of time friend, because it’s going to be the exact same or crazy similar. Don’t do that to yourself. Just focus on learning the mechanism of the drug class. After that, you will automatically know the mechanism of action for all the drugs within that drug class, since they all act the same way.
Now, step number 3, is to create med cards with all the info you need to know about that CLASS of drug. See, we’re still talking about drug CLASS here. Write out the common side effects, what you need to assess for, anything you need to know about administering it, and what you need to educate your patient on, all for the drug CLASS. So go through the medications in your drug guide and find the commonalities between them – the side effects, nursing assessment, how to give it, and what patient education you need to do.
I’m going to tell you right now, this will take a while. But it won’t take NEARLY as long as it would if you just tried to memorize them all individually. Which is why following these steps is so important. It’s super helpful for you to see what each of the medications in each drug class have in common and learn that FIRST.
And then you can move onto step number 4, which is to make med cards for the individual medications you need to know. And I know, right about now you’re feeling like this was a bait and switch, because I just told you not to study individual medications.
But here’s the beautiful thing about this, since you’ve already studied the drug class, you will already know most of the info you need for each individual medication! It’s FABULOUS! It seriously will save you so much time studying. So now here in step 4, what you’re doing is filling in any glaring gaps in knowledge.
So maybe one medication has a specific side effect that other medications in its drug class don’t have, or maybe you want to write down what concentration and rate each medication should be given at through an IV push. There will be some differences between each medication that you can write down here if you choose.
But for the most part, you will already know most of what you need to know by know, because you’re a rock star nursing student and studied the drug class FIRST.
In the next video, I’m going to walk you through how to make med cards step-by-step. I get this question ALL the time from nursing students about what to include in med cards and how to write them out. So in the next video, I’m going to show you!
Now make sure to like, comment, subscribe and share this video with a friend.
And click on one of these videos here so you can keep rocking nursing school, and go become the nurse that God created only YOU to be. And I’ll catch you in the next video.
