Pharmacology is a critical piece of knowledge for nurses. It’s always intimidating, and at times, challenging, for nursing students to learn all the ins and outs of pharmacology. But, lucky you! This guide is here to help you (and empower you) on your nursing school journey. Learn how to navigate the world of nursing pharmacology with our study guide below.
Why is Pharmacology Challenging for Nursing Students?
Pharmacology for nursing students is challenging for a multitude of reasons. If you know, you know, but if you don’t, read below.
1. Large amounts of information
Nursing students have to memorize drugs, their side effects, their classes, and more. It’s a lot of information to digest at once, and students need to grasp each concept quickly to succeed in their pharmacology course and in nursing school.
2. Dosage calculations
Nursing students must learn how to calculate drug dosages to ensure patients receive the correct amount of medication—not too little and not too much. A dosage mistake (or administration mistake) is extremely dangerous and has the potential to end your nursing career.
3. Drug interactions and classes
Another area where there is no room for error is your understanding of drug interactions and classifications. Nursing students learn the importance of how drugs interact within the human body and with other medications. Generally, you need a good grasp of biology and chemistry to master this.
4. Application of knowledge
Nursing students must keep ethics, patient rights, and patient safety top of mind. It’s critical to avoid errors and follow the proper protocols when applying your knowledge in the field.
5. Drug administration
Nursing students need to know which drug to prescribe, how much of it to administer, how often the patient needs it, and the correct method of administration. Not only that, but nurses must also provide accurate documentation when administering medication. This is otherwise known as the rights of medication administration.
Key Pharmacology Concepts to Review and Master
Pharmacology review for nurses starts with the basics. Nail these to make studying a breeze!
Drug classes
Learning medications as a nurse will get easier once you study drug classes. Each drug is categorized into a class based on its effects on the body, chemical structure, or use.
Mechanism of action (MOA)
MOA refers to how a drug produces an effect within the body, which you must know before administering a medication.
Rights of medication administration
The five rights will keep your patient safe. Always ensure it’s the correct drug, dose, route, time, and patient.
Pharmacokinetics
Understand how the body interacts with the drug after it’s administered! This is how the body absorbs, distributes, metabolizes, and excretes the drug.
Pharmacodynamics
Recognize the overall effects of drugs within the body. You’ll need to learn how it binds to receptors, post-receptor effects, and chemical reactions.
Pharmacogenetics
A patient’s genes may affect their response to a medication. If you know your patient has a genetic mutation, consider the implications of pharmacogenetics.
Study Strategies to Use for Pharmacology in Nursing School
It wouldn’t be a pharmacology study guide for nursing students without a few study strategies.
Strategy 1: Utilize your peers
Make a study group with your peers, visit office hours, ask questions in online forums, or download a free ebook online. There are tons of resources that nursing students can use to study pharmacology.If you need a place to get started, explore here first!
Strategy 2: Change your study style
If you’re having trouble concentrating or feeling motivated to learn about medications in nursing, then it’s time to switch up your approach. Use the chart included in our “How to Ace Pharmacology in Nursing School” blog to match your learning style to the suggested learning activity. If it’s something new, it may just become your tried-and-true study method.
Strategy 3: Mnemonics
Mnemonics, or even better, picture mnemonics! Thousands of nursing students use Picmonic to study pharmacology, watching fun, whacky characters in short, memorable videos to master all the need-to-knows of pharmacology. Picmonic’s extensive picture mnemonic library has 300+ pharmacology mnemonics to help improve knowledge, retention, and exam performance!
Strategy 4: Practice math
It may not be your favorite subject, but math is important for drug dosage calculations. Practice scenarios and other real-world situations you may face to ace this part of your pharmacology course. A handy tool we’ll mention in this nursing pharmacology study guide is Medscape’s drug dosage calculator.
Strategy 5: Model real-life
Another “practice makes perfect” tip here. In addition to calculating drug dosages, you should use mock scenarios and practice examples to nail the nursing rights of medication administration. You’ll remember the rights, practice them, and learn how to apply them all at once, preparing you for success in pharmacology and your future nursing career.
Pharmacology Books to Use as a Resource
Once you have a few study strategies that work for you, then it’s time to hit the books. You can read the following books and study them alongside Picmonic’s visual learning system, allowing you to study, review, and quiz yourself to remember more in less time.
Pharmacology for Nurses – A Pathophysiologic Approach, 6th Ed., Adams, Holland & Urban: A holistic approach to pharmacology, this book links pharmacology to therapeutic goals and has 300+ Picmonics.
Pharmacology: A Patient-Centered Nursing Process Approach 10th Ed., McCuistion: With guidance to help you get NCLEX®-ready, this book supplies prototype drug charts and has over 400+ Picmonics.
Pharmacology and the Nursing Process, 9th Ed., Lilley, Rainforth Collins & Snyder: Learn how to safely and effectively administer medications in this book, and tap into 300+ complementary Picmonics when you sign up for Picmonic.
Lehne’s Pharmacology for Nursing Care, 11th Ed., Burchum & Rosenthal: Described as a student-favorite, this book is written by nursing educators to help pharmacology be more approachable. This has 300+ Picmonics in the Picmonic library!
Additional Pharmacology Resources for Nursing Students
Whether you’re studying for your pharmacology course or the NCLEX, our study guide’s got your back. Here are a few more resources you can use!
TrueLearn
Need an easy-to-use NCLEX question bank? TrueLearn’s just the tool for you. Their SmartBank contains more than 1,000 questions mapped to the NCLEX-RN blueprint, and you can create your very own digital flashcards within the platform to memorize drugs and other key pharmacology concepts for the exam.
A Nurse in the Making Cheat Sheet
This free guide from A Nurse in the Making is the perfect cheat sheet for dosage calculations, drug prefixes and suffixes, abbreviations, and more.
Picmonic
Picmonic is the only visual mnemonic learning tool that’s research proven to improve retention and test scores. In addition to our extensive pharmacology library, Picmonic can be utilized throughout your nursing school career. From clinicals to the NCLEX® and beyond, Picmonic is there to support you every step of the way and help you become the best nurse you can be.
Picmonic features:
- 1,200+ Picmonics covering 13,000+ nursing facts
- Daily practice quizzes and questions with daily-spaced repetition
- Unlimited quizzing with 13,000+ multiple-choice practice questions
- Personalized dashboard with customized study recommendations and tips
- Access NCLEX® study guides, Next Gen NCLEX® questions, nursing webinars, videos, infographics, and more!
