hi my name is Kathy parks and I am a
registered nurse as well as a certified
wound care nurse and a public health
nurse and this is the first video in my
new pharmacology video series in this
video I will be going over some general
tips for studying pharmacology and then
starting in my next video I will get
into specific medications now as I go
through this video series I will be
following along with my flashcards
addition 2.0 that are available on my
website level up RN comm you do not need
to have these flashcards to follow along
and get value out of this video series
however I definitely recommend that you
either buy flashcards or make your own
because repetition is key when it comes
to learning pharmacology
so while you're studying the medications
I really recommend that you spend a
couple hours over multiple days versus
many hours over one day research just
shows that you retain the information a
lot better if you space it out like that
versus doing a huge like binge studying
session so take your flashcards with you
everywhere take them on a walk take them
to the kid pickup line take them camping
you can pull them out in between classes
really the more time that you can spend
with those flashcards and the more
repetition you do you'll just learn it
better that way so if you are following
along with our flashcards definitely pay
special attention to the items that I
have bolded and put in red because those
items are going to be particularly
important for you to know as a nursing
student and as a nurse also included in
the deck and what I'll be sharing with
all of our medications are my silly tips
our hints for remembering a medication
class or a particular medication some of
these tips are kind of pg-13 so if
you're easily offended than this deck
and probably this video series may not
be for you so before we get into
specific medications I want to offer
some
general tips for doing well on
pharmacology so first of all you
definitely want to know the generic
names of medications so on a test you
will always be given the generic name of
medication in some cases you may be
given the brand name of a medication and
if it helps you to know the brand name
in order to remember the generic name
that's great but you have to know the
generic names so definitely know those
many medications are not safe during
pregnancy so I don't spend a lot of time
knowing whether a medication is category
a B C D or whatever during pregnancy I
just assume that like I said most
medications are not safe during
pregnancy also for food interactions
when in doubt go with grapefruit juice
so grapefruit juice interacts with a lot
of different medications so you really
can't go wrong with grapefruit juice in
most cases there are there are other
important food interactions that we will
be going over as we go through this
video series as well but definitely keep
in mind grapefruit juice when it comes
to medication administration you always
want to counsel your patient that they
should not discontinue medications
abruptly and if they miss a dose they
shouldn't double down on a missed dose
so there are a few exceptions to that
rule such as birth control pills but in
in general it is not usually safe to
double down on medications if a dose is
missed for antibiotics if your patient
is going to be getting antibiotics it's
really important that we get that
culture and do a culture and sensitivity
prior to the patient starting those
antibiotics so and when they start the
antibiotics we want to make sure they
complete the full course of antibiotics
so that's going to be really important
to know so get that culture first then
they can start their round of
antibiotics while we wait for the
results also when it comes to
extended-release capsules we do not want
our patient to chew and we should not
crush those medications
if they're extended-release when you are
asked for like a common side effect for
a medication you should probably go for
something such as a headache or you know
GI upset and not something serious such
as like urinary retention or seizures
for many classes of medications it's
kind of intuitive to figure out what
some of the side effects may be so if a
particular medication does its job too
well then we can end up with adverse
side effects for example if a patient is
taking blood pressure medications and it
does its job too well we can end up with
hypotension if a patient is taking a
diabetic medication and it does its job
too well we can end up with hypoglycemia
if the patient's taking an anticoagulant
and it thins the blood too much then we
can end up with bleeding so that's a
good way to figure out what a key side
effect could be of a medication if you
think about if the medication does its
job too well what will you end up with
so in my next video I will get into
specific medications in the respiratory
system because as you know has a nursing
student or a nurse airway and breathing
is our top priority so that's why we're
starting with the respiratory system so
I hope this video series helps you a lot
be sure to share a link to our channel
with your classmates or friends who are
in nursing school also if you have
additional tips or suggestions for
remembering drug names or drug details
definitely leave those in the comments
so that everybody can benefit from that
information and then lastly I just ask
that you like and you subscribe to our
Channel and I wish you the best of luck
with school and I can't wait to share
all of these medications with you and
help you learn pharmacology so that you
can ace your exam and be a safe and
effective nurse