Reddit reviews Mosby's Pharmacology Memory NoteCards: Visual, Mnemonic, and Memory Aids for Nurses

Pharm is tough. The first test of nursing school in ANY subject is going to be tough.

My success in pharm has depended on studying in MANY different ways. My professor provides us with a "key list" of drugs for each test module, and then bases her lectures off that list. I take that list, save it to my desktop, and almost retype all of her PPT notes underneath each drug/drug class. I print this off as a sort of condensed "manual" and carry that with me just about everywhere. It makes it easy for me to study (I don't have to get out my laptop, can read it at a red light...oops?). Also, I use mosby's flashcards (link below) and found them to be extremely helpful. The pictures may or may not be too silly to remember, but the information on the back is extremely condensed and helpful. Now, these flashcards do NOT always have everything my professor tests on, HOWEVER, they do give me a good starting point.

Basically, I start small and start to build on a drug class. I "get to know" my drug by looking at the Mosby flashcard. I'm familiar. I then re read my notes from my teacher. More familiar. I tend to repeat this step a LOT. If it feels like it's not sinking in, just keep going. Pharm is a lot of rote memorization, and you have to keep chugging.

I also found it very helpful to read case studies on a drug, find a youtube video ABOUT someone who takes the drug, read something about someone who took it, etc. It was a LOT easier for me to remember a drug when I was able to put a story to it. I have classmates who even make up their OWN stories about a drug. Whatever you have to do.

I don't study for pharm in any one way. The key is to find a way that keeps you ENGAGED. I personally did not enjoy making flashcards (the ones I bought served a purpose) and got more use out of re-typing notes and having everything on a few pages.

Also, do you have a study group? I find that sitting down with my condensed drug list and talking about the drug with classmates helps a lot. Quiz each other. Just talk about it. It's also helpful to find out a classmate has been/is on a certain drug and shares their story about the drug. Again, have something to connect to.

One important thing to realize (I struggled with this) is that you CANNOT memorize EVERYTHING about a drug. When I say "spend time" with each drug, pretend you are sitting there taking it out to dinner. Find out it's life story. Why does it do what it does? Once you start understanding the drug, you can start to understand/guess some of the side and adverse effects (some side/adverse effects are just oddballs, and you have to memorize those, but fortunately the "weird" ones are the easy ones that stand out!). The big drug list we got used to overwhelm me, but just take it one. bite. at. a. time. Also, I study pharm a little bit every day. I could NOT be successful in this class if I was like a lot of my other classmates and crammed. Often times, it's literally the day before a test where the information just "clicks", and I finally feel confident. I can't imagine trying to cram all the info in in a few days. It's not a good subject for that.

Also, now you know HOW your teacher tests, and the kinds of questions they deem to be important. When you meet with your teacher, be sure to straight up ask them what they recommend. Many teachers are more than willing to help. My pharm professor is amazing, and is the reason pharm is one of my favorite classes.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0323289541/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

NRSG.com has a pharm course that I'm taking over the summer. Get an early start on that crap, that's the one course that almost took me out last semester (did fine in the class but failed the ATI). I also really like these pharm flashcards, they don't cover all drugs but I was actually able to visualize a few of the cards during my ATI retake and it helped.

I am also in patho next fall so can't help you there....

Thanks! I actually took my pharm final a few weeks ago and barely passed it... and it was open book.

So, I struggle a lot there. I am going to get this to help me out, but are there any other resources you can think of that would help? I know it's mostly memorization, but I get overwhelmed because of how much there is.

Like, I went through an entire pharm course and I know the only reason I passed was because we were allowed to use our notes for quizzes and our books for the final. I barely retained any of the information that was taught to me.

And now, it's a huge struggle because my program is so fast-paced that once you fall behind, you're pretty much done for because there are already 2 new subjects we're racing through and it's hard to find the time to study for everything I'm in currently, let alone things I need to work on additionally.


But it's important because pharmacology is obviously going to be a big part of the state board exam. :(

I'm finishing up my Pharmacology class for the semester now. I would say there's a few things that have been really useful while studying.

The first is to get some kind of supplement to your textbook. I use the Mosby flashcards with full illustrations on one side, and a full list of the medicine's action, uses, adverse effects, etc. on the other. They give a really good summary of the things you need to know, and have nice mnemonics and ways to remember basic info.

The second is to make study guides. I lucked out and have a teacher who gives us a list of specific things to look for on the exams, but they can also be done by simply going through the class of drug (antibiotics, for example), then narrowing it down to specific drugs, their effect on the body, what they're used to treat, therapeutic dose, and adverse reactions.

A lot of my test questions will focus on why you'd use Drug A over Drug B, even though they're both the same kind of medicine. Pay attention to these, because they can be really useful in understanding why there's various versions of specific drugs. Why would warfarin be a good choice over heparin for abdominal surgery, even though they're typically used together? Things like that.

Finally, something that personally works for me is the night before the test, I will simply handwrite out the most important information from our PowerPoint lectures, my study guide, etc. It's time consuming, and rewriting doesn't work for everyone, but I find it helpful since I type most of my notes/study guides in class.

Here's the link for the flash cards if you're interested.
https://www.amazon.com/Mosbys-Pharmacology-Memory-NoteCards-Mnemonic/dp/0323289541

I would also suggest looking over any Pathophysiology notes you may have, or A&P if you haven't taken Patho. Understanding disease processes and what system your drug is effecting specifically can help with comprehension.

Good luck!

There are premade med flashcards you can buy. Here's an example.

Her class will likely have powerpoints to study or she can take notes during lecture that will help highlight the important information. You don't have to literally memorize every medication, because that would be insane. It's a lot of learning the more common classes of drugs and their actions/side effects, and most of the drugs in their respective classes have similar names so they are easy to lump together. I find the people that made 100s of flash cards for every drug imaginable wasted their time.

For NCLEX all I did was buy the Kaplan Q bank and the Saunders review book and do ~50 practice questions a day for about 2 weeks and I passed first try.

I'm a Pharm.D student and when I first started pharmacology I found these cards helpful:

http://www.amazon.com/Mosbys-Pharmacology-Memory-NoteCards-Mnemonic/dp/0323078001/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1420735838&sr=8-5&keywords=pharmacology+flash+cards+for+nursing+students

I think this is the newer edition:

http://www.amazon.com/Mosbys-Pharmacology-Memory-NoteCards-Mnemonic/dp/0323289541/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1420735838&sr=8-3&keywords=pharmacology+flash+cards+for+nursing+students

Search pharmacology for nurses on Amazon and there's a lot of great resources!