Are you struggling with pharmacology in nursing school?
In this live YouTube session, hosts Christina Rafano and Matthew address nursing students who feel overwhelmed by pharmacology. They begin by acknowledging viewers' concerns about flipped classrooms, exam anxiety, and the sheer volume of medications. The hosts outline concrete study strategies: (1) always learn the generic name of a drug, as exams focus on generics; (2) organize medications by class rather than memorizing each individual drug; (3) use their proprietary pharmacology card box, which groups drugs into classes and highlights mechanism of action, side effects, and nursing considerations. They stress that understanding a drug’s mechanism of action allows students to infer side effects and adverse reactions, turning rote memorization into critical‑thinking practice. The conversation also covers broader learning mind‑sets—don’t panic when material feels forgotten, knowledge builds over time, and the NCLEX tests critical thinking more than exhaustive pharmacology detail. Throughout, they promote the Nursing SOS community: membership gives access to the card boxes, live lectures, coffee‑chat sessions, and peer support. Motivational messages encourage perseverance, reminding students that difficulty does not equal inability and that faith or personal calling can guide decisions about staying in nursing. The hosts announce a short seasonal break, promising new live sessions and video content in October, and remind viewers to subscribe and follow on Instagram for updates.
Chapters
One, two, three. One, two, three.
Hello.
Hello. Hi.
Welcome everyone. Happy evening to all y'. All. Welcome to the Nursing school show. I am Matthew and Christina. We are here talking about nursing school things. All things nursing school pharmacology. I asked a question on YouTube. Are you struggling with pharmacology?
Wow. You asked a question on YouTube.
Well, that's a title. Are you struggling with pharmacology?
Okay.
Yeah. And we got a couple answers too, so that's cool. That's good. Good that we got answers. Sorry that you guys are struggling, but hopefully this will help you out. So stick around. We are going to be talking about pharmacology and how to master pharmacology.
Pharmacology right now. Instagram. Hi, Jake.
Hi, pretty Kim, Sarah, Anjalina and Jennifer on YouTube. Yes. I'm struggling like crazy. Scared to failed the class. Don't even know how to start studying. All right, stick around. We are going to answer that question of how to study for pharmacology. Hey, Marfa Jo's Jennifer. I did all right in farm one, but find myself struggling in farm two. I have the same professor, but he went to a flipped classroom for Farm 2 and I feel like I'm drowning.
Those flipped classrooms, I tell you, those are. Those are. We did that too, and it's tough.
Okay. Yeah. What does that mean for the uninitiated?
I am not a nurse, FYI, like the. The students are teaching, so it's. You can do it different ways. Like how we did it in nursing school, the flipped class was like the students would teach other students or it would be like case scenarios and we had to all walk through it.
Okay.
Like together kind of thing. So we're like teaching. It's not the instructor teaching you, it's you teaching each other.
Interesting.
Jennifer, is that the instructor being like the moderator?
Oh, okay.
I would.
Jennifer, does that sound like what you are going through right now and let us know. So, yeah, we would like to help. So, yes, we are going to go over all things pharmacology. Michelle. I'm struggling with pharmacology. Rachel, starting Wednesday, my first day in nursing school. Awesome. Congratulations.
Yep.
Jennifer. Yeah, he is expect. He expects us to teach ourselves and then teach him back. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
That's more. Getting more and more common these days. Yep.
Yeah. Well, I mean, that's. That actually kind of goes into one of our. Our tips just for studying in general is that you want to try and teach other people that are not a nurse in school or not nurses just in general concepts Right. Because you do learn better when you're teaching because you're actually taking all that information in and you need to put it in layman's terms. Especially, like me, they're not a nurse and they want to learn about it. So that is good for your. For you understanding and retaining that information. It's just how do you teach yourself and how do you get to that point where you feel comfortable in teaching other people?
So that's because you're going. It's frustrating because you're going to nursing school to learn. Right. And then you oftentimes it is like you're expected to teach yourself, which can be pretty frustrating. But just like Matthew said, you know, it is helpful when you can teach it to somebody else. So give and take.
Interesting. Give and take. All right, let's see. Past farm, but I feel like I haven't retained the information. Yeah, Tammy, I'm sure that is part of it, too.
We have a couple questions on Instagram about nclex, nclex Y things. So you guys stay tuned because, well, that's kind of what we're talking about as far as pharm, how to study for pharmacology, which does apply for the nclex as well. Yep. So it's pretty. Pharmacology is an interesting one because they can throw literally anything at you, like all your meds. Right. Like, when you flip through the drug guide, there are tons and tons of meds, like, just flipping through it as a new nursing student, you know, not recommended. Don't do that, because you'll just freak yourself out. So first answer, you don't have to know all the meds in the med guide. I know that your school is going to tell you to know everything about everything. I know the nclex is going to tell you to know everything about everything. And while, yes, it's true they can throw anything at you, there are meds that they do gravitate towards more often. So there is, there are certainly medications that you are more likely to be tested on rather than everything in the drug guide because, like, we're not in pharmacy school. Right. We're not, you know, going to nursing school to become pharmacists. That's not what we're doing. So, you know, you're not expected to know every single thing about every single medication. We need to know the medications. You know, you have to know the medications you're giving to patients. You know how to. You need to know how to give them, you know, safely to your patients, obviously. And so that is what we're here to learn how to do in nursing school. But I think first things first, don't freak out, because I know there's a lot of medications in the med guide, like your Davis or guide or other med guys out there. Don't freak out when you get that book because you don't have to know everything.
Yeah, I think that's a big thing is. Yeah, definitely don't freak out. And even if you're starting. Starting behind or you fail the quiz or anything, don't let that stop you. That's. That's not the end of the world. Just continue and move forward. So, yeah, definitely do that. Yep.
Yeah.
So shall I hit the tips? Let's hit the tips. How to study. How to study for the pharm.
Okay, so studying pharmacology. First tip for you. This is really important, you guys. When you are learning pharmacology, when you're learning your medications, you want to make sure that you know the generic name, because the generic name is what is going to show up on your exams. Your exams may or may not include the trade name, but the generic name will always show up. And so this is really important because oftentimes when you learn medications, it's like you just know the trade name, like Tylenol. Right. But you don't necessarily know the generic name of acetaminophen. So you have to be conscious of that as you're going through nursing school, making sure that you are, in fact, learning the generic names, not just the trade names. It is helpful to have both in your brain. It is helpful to know both. But for your exams, just make sure that you do know the generic name and not just the training, because that is what the worst thing that could happen on your exam is, that you show up to an exam and they throw out a medication and you have never heard of it before or you just don't know. Like, you know, I should. You think I should know this and I don't because it was the generic name of a medication that you did know, but you just didn't. You had learned the trade names for. So make sure that you do the generic names. Anything on that? We talked about that last.
Yeah, we did talk about that a little bit ago, you know, when we were talking about pharmacology. It is a good, good refresher, though. Yeah, definitely the. The generic name.
Mm. Yeah. I think a lot of this just goes into testing t tips. Right. Like. Like strategies. Right. We want to make sure that we are always working smarter, not harder. Nursing school is not about studying more necessarily. Nursing school is about studying smarter. And this is how you study smarter.
Just that.
So generic name for starters. Now, second one, you guys, if you've seen our pharmacology box, I want to point something out. When you're in nursing school, you have a lot of individual medications to learn. So here's the stack of med cards that are in our pharmacology box. So you. This is over 120 of them. These are the most common meds that you have to know.
That's not even all of the individual meds.
That's just the most common used and most commonly used. And then we have the medication. Classic. So notice how many there are. What are there like 30, right? 30ish classes.
A little over 30. Yeah.
Or something a few over 30 classes. So here's what I'm going to suggest to you. Okay, you ready for this? Because this is probably the biggest pharmacology tip you will ever hear throughout your nursing career. Nursing school. Career Nursing school journey. When you are learning medications for pharmacology, you want to learn them by medication class, not the individual medication. Because these medications here, a lot of them will fit into a single class. And then you can just learn the class rather than the medication. I mean, seriously, which pile would you prefer to learn? This one or this one? Door number one or door number two? I mean, genuinely, it is so much easier to group your medications by class class and learn them that way rather than having to learn them all individually. Because so many of these you can just group together and learn them as a group rather than trying to struggle to learn them all individually. It's just game changing. Truly. Yep, we talk about it all the time. Really?
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I think that that is a really good point is you can either learn them all individually and that's a lot of rote memorization. Or like we've been talking about, it's really the concept based learning. And knowing that the concept is that the class of drugs all act similar. And so instead of repeating all the work, we want you to work efficiently, go ahead and study the class and all the medications under that class act similarly. So you start from a good base of knowledge and then work from there. I think that that is a good way of thinking about it. So all of the ones in the class work similarly. So it's better to learn them by class rather than rote memorization of every single individual one. And again, that goes into critical thinking, that goes into concept based learning where you're learning the concepts of what each class does rather than, oh, such and such medication. I need to learn every single bullet point about every single thing on it. All right, next one. It's in the same class. So, like 80% of it's the same or 90% of this, it's the same work from a larger chunk of similar information down.
Yep.
Yeah.
It's just like I said before, you guys, nursing school is not about who's the smartest, who you know, who studies the most, you know, how much time are you spending on it. Nursing school is really a game of making sure that you are strategic in how you are studying and how you are using your time. If you're wasting time studying, you are going to have a real problem because there is just so much to know in such a short amount of time. It's just not realistic. So you have to make sure that the way that you are studying, like how you are, what study strategies you're using, how you are studying, that it is efficient for you. Right. That it's effective, that you're not wasting time. Because honestly, you have better things to be doing than studying 24 hours a day. Right. That's just not. It's not how we can function in nursing school.
Yeah.
Yep.
Yeah. So Tammy brought up an interesting thing, that she even passed farm, but feel like you haven't retained the information. Do you have any insight into that?
So it's funny because as you are progressing through nursing school, Tammy, it's such a funny phenomena that happens is that everything kind of builds on itself. So even though you're gonna. Yeah, you're not gonna remember everything that you knew about farm. Right. Three months later, four months later, but you will start to connect it to other things and be able to more critically think. So let's say you took pharmacology when you were, you know. Right. Started nursing school in fundamentals, and then you move on to med surg. Well, you might not remember everything that you learned in your pharmacology or fundamentals class, but now you're seeing those medications pop up again and again and get clinical. You're learning about the disorders in the body that they apply to. You know, you're starting to think of them in a different way. So even though you don't like. No, you're not going to remember every little thing. That's just the reality. You're not going to remember every little thing, but you will be able to really connect things back together and you will be so, so surprised and happy. I Think by the time you are just about done with your program to really look back and see how far you've come. Because my. You're going to know so much in three weeks from now, in three months from now, you know, in a year from now, you are gonna know so much more than you do right now, which is so, so wonderful to see that progressive progression.
And I think, I think that's a really good point, Tammy. And, and everyone else that just thinks that, oh, I'm going through nursing school, there's all this information, not just farm, but just all this information that's being thrown at us. And I'm studying, I'm studying, studying. Yeah, I'm getting through it, but it just doesn't feel like it's sticking. That's because probably you're comparing yourself to kind of where you think you should be. Whereas just, just think about it and look back to what it was like just last year or just last semester or just one class ago. And I think you'd be surprised that, oh, I actually do know this thing, these things, even though I don't feel like it. And like Christina said, when you start seeing those pharmacology, those medication things in more real life scenarios or clinical or just throughout your coursework, it'll. You'll be surprised at how it comes back to you.
So just really surprised.
Yeah, yeah. Just stick to, stick with it and don't get discouraged that you don't remember it right now, but when, when you do. And then as long as you keep practicing and going through clinicals and things like that. Yeah, it will definitely come back for sure.
It always does. Like you, you know, you wake up in the middle of the night and go, wait a minute, I understand that now your brain just has to munch on it for a while. Yeah, you got hearts on Instagram.
Yay.
Hi, Christiana. Nice to see you.
Jennifer, are those the cards that were offered when you joined Nursing sos? Yes. So we just had an. Oh, we just had an open enrollment for our nursing. Nursing SOS membership community. If you join annual, then you got these, the farm box, which has these cards in it.
We're gonna be.
We're going to be shipping them out asap. So anyone that joined on the annual definitely will be getting those out to you. If not, if you are part of the Nursing SOS membership community, you do have a special membership discount for any of our boxes, either the farm box or the doscal box.
Yep.
So. But Jennifer. Yeah. If you joined annually, we'll be getting those to you asap. Yay. Yeah.
Because we love our members. Yes. Hello, Christiana. So excited to see you tonight. How was your guys's three day weekend? Yes, I'm curious. Hey, I also have this. Okay, well. Okay, I have a slight soapbox that I'm going to parallel with from.
Okay, before you do that, Tammy just responded. Thank you. I was worried about this because I start back October 3rd and this is my final quarter. It's your final quarter. It's your final quarter before graduating. Just, just think back to when you first started nursing school. And yeah, just, just think back.
Just, you know, so much blinders off. Yeah.
You know, so much more now. So definitely don't worry about it. As you practice more, you'll will become more second nature.
The reality is that the NCLEX is not going to test you on the intricacies of pharmacodynamics. You know, the NCLEX is testing you on your critical thinking skills and you know, how you, you need to meet like the baseline competency level to be a competent nurse. That is all you know. So Tammy, what you learned in pharmacology, maybe your first or second semester, like it was really detailed. The things that you had to know for that exam, for your exams, in your pharmacology class. And the NCLEX is just not going to test you on all of that. I mean it's, it's interesting because you know, the NCLEX only, there's only so many questions. You know, there's only so many questions. So they have to prioritize what they are asking you. And yeah, I think it's important to think of it that way really. That obviously they can't test you on everything. You know, you're going to be a lot more prepared than you think you are right now. Truly, you are a lot more prepared.
Yeah, it's just surprising in anything we do in nursing school in general or. Yeah, just any new skill that you learn, it doesn't feel like there's any movement until you actually look back and say, oh, wow, I used to not know anything about this.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Wow. I did something.
Yeah, exactly.
Yep. Wow, I did something. I think this is a really good question. Someone's just asking Jake. Hi, Jake on Instagram asking about switching programs because you don't want to be in nursing school anymore. Now friends, here's the thing. So many of us don't want to be in nursing school anymore. And that's okay if it's genuinely not what God wants you to do or what God has called you to do. But if you do feel like in your heart that you like God, God is calling you to do this. This is something that you need to do is going to nursing school. Then just because you get to a pharmacology class and it's hard, don't give up. You know, I don't want any of you guys quitting because it's hard. That's not what we do here. So, yeah, pharmacology is hard, yes. Fundamentals is hard. Yes, nursing school is hard. But you are so much more capable then you know that you are. You can do it like everyone else who has come before you, you can do this. Even though pharmacology is hard, even though learning these medications is hard, even though applying all this stuff on your exams is hard, you can do it. You just need the right study strategies to help you get there, which is what we're walking through. So I don't want any of you to give up and just to dismiss it as if it's like, oh, no big deal, you know, I'll just go do something else. If you really believe that this is not what God wants you to do, then fine, yeah, definitely, you know, do whatever you're called to do. But if you just want to give up and quit in nursing school because it's hard, like, no, we don't have tolerance for that here. I am not going to let you quit on yourself. Okay? Deal? Deal.
Yeah. So I think if you get those thoughts, really, definitely turn it over, think about it through, give it some time, and then look at it objectively. Not. Not subjectively or from an emotional status of, oh, I'm just so frustrated or.
Burnt out or burnt out.
I just. I just can't even.
I just can't even.
It's a funny thing. I just can't even. You don't even finish. I just can't even.
No, you just want to.
We all get there. We all get frustrated or struggle with things, so that's fine. Just take some time, make sure that you're in a level, objective place, and then look at it objectively. And like Christina said, if it is not your calling, then that's fine. We're not saying to push through no matter what. And only quitters quit. No, that's.
That's.
That's not what we're saying.
Only quitters.
Just look at it objectively and pray about it and decide. Find what your calling is. And if that. If it's your calling to continue with nursing school just because it's hard doesn't mean that that's, That's a sign saying that, oh, I was not meant for this. No, things can be tough.
It's fine. Yeah. Just because something's hard doesn't mean that you can't do it. You can absolutely do pharmacology. And we're saying all this because, A, somebody made me think about it, and B, pharmacology is often one of the hardest classes that you will have in nursing school. Pharmacology and med surg. So, you know, you have to make sure that no matter what you are presented with in nursing school, no matter what you come up against, no matter what stretches you. Right. That you don't give up. Because there are so many times in nursing school where it's like, yeah, that could have broken me. You know, like, that was, that was a rough thing. You know, whether it's a nursing instructor kind of losing it on you or, you know, losing your first patient at clinical, your first code, your first rapid. All of these things that are emotionally stressful, tumultuous things that all nursing students, all nurses go through, we really need to make sure that we don't give up, no matter what. Because like we said, that's not what we do here.
Yep, let's see. Becky, thank you so much for encouraging words. Thank you, Christina, for all encouraging words.
Thank you. I was just thinking, man, I'm so happy that I. Such a godly man. You're wonderful.
Michelle, as a member, do you help with the new nclex? So, so that's a, That's a good question.
We talked about that.
We did talk about that a couple weeks ago. Just to quickly go over it again. Nursing sos and the membership community, we help out in a lot of ways. I'd say that probably the, the biggest way that we actually help is actual the community and the uplifting spirit and all the people that are going through it and going through it together. And if you're struggling, get in the community and you talk through it. I think that's one of the big benefits.
Yeah.
Obviously the other benefit is all the content that we do provide. And wrapped in that is really the way that we teach is really the concept based, the critical thinking based style of teaching where you learn the nursing concept concepts inside and out. No matter what kind of questions are thrown at you or how things are questioned, we. We teach the concepts around it and teach you how to critically think. So no matter how the questions are asked, you can figure it out even if you don't know exactly the medication, but you know the medication. Click class. Or you know the, you don't know the specific signs and symptoms, but you know the pathophysiology. Right. So you can, you can work backwards through that. So as far as working with the new nclex, the new nclex sounds scary. We, we go over, we go over it in detail in a live that you can check back in YouTube that we go over what's different with a new NCLEX. It's a really good one to watch as well. But really all it is is the same nursing content, just asked in different ways. And, and so as long as you know the content, which you would as a nursing SOS member, then you would. The new nclex isn't really anything to worry about.
It's really great. Like what Matthew said is we talked about it a couple weeks ago on our, on our other live. Previous live. And the membership community is really just that it's a membership and it's community. So not only do you get the step by step nursing lectures that do, of course, yes. Walk you through step by step, what you have to know to pass your nursing school exams and be successful on the new nclex, the next gen. But at the same time you also get the community behind you of these fabulous, fabulous nursing students who, you know, are walking right by your side. So it's really, really great to have so many friends just right out of the gate to come walk alongside you throughout nursing school.
Yeah. Just really quickly, Lisette and Carlos on YouTube are asking, how do you remember all the side effects and adverse effects? And then kind of related to that, Carlos is asking, how do you organize the different drugs in their classes with their side effects and adverse effects? So probably just go over how to use the med cards and how to.
Use the class cards real quick. I'm gonna pull one of these actually, so. Oh, let's do nitro, because a lot of students know what that is. So nitro. So, okay, so here's how our med cards are structured. And this is. These are the things that you need to know when you're studying pharmacology. You've got another generic name, right. You can also know the trade names, but the generic name is absolutely important.
That's why it's in the big font.
That's why it's in the big pocket, friends. That's why Matthew put it right there. The mechanism of action is absolutely key for you to know. So this is what's going to answer your question.
Who Is that now Carlos and Lisette.
Okay. Lisette.
Hi.
So the mechanism of action is really, really key for you to know for pharmacology for your medications, whether it be the med class or individual medications. The mechanism of action is how does the medication act in the body? Like, what is it doing? Right? And then Lisette and Carlos, you are going to connect the side effects, the adverse effects, back to that mechanism of action. So why are these side effects happening as they relate to the mechanism of action? So you know, how the med acts in the body. And then, okay, now from that, let's critically think through. Through the side effects, which is what we walk you through on the card. Same thing with the nursing assessment and the nursing considerations. You know, you need to make sure that you are always connecting it back to the patho. Excuse me, not the pathophysiology, the mechanism of action for the medication. This, just like Matthew was saying just a few minutes ago, is that this is where critical thinking really comes in. This is like the concept based learning, when you can apply what you're learning, right? When you know how a medication acts in the body. And then when you get a question on the MDN or a nursing exam that says, you know, what are some side effects that you would see for a patient on this medication? What are some possible side effects or what would you assess for. For a patient on this medication or with this disorder or whatever, as long as you understand what that medication is doing, you are so much more prepared to answer that question because you can walk through those side effects and say, okay, yes, that one makes sense, or no, that doesn't make sense. Does that make sense?
So, bottom of line, start with the mechanism of action. That's the base mechanism of action. And from there, really practice the critical thinking practice. Okay, if this is how the medication works, if it work, what do you say? If it works too well, then these are some of the side effects that could occur.
Yeah, things like that. Another tip. Yeah, so, yeah, that's another tip for side effects for sure, that can really, really help us think about what would happen if this medication worked too well in the body. So if this medication just went bananas and did its job way too well, then what. What would you see? And most often, that will be a lot of side effects that you'll see. So, tip for you.
So hopefully, Carlos and Lisette, that that helps. Yeah, definitely start with the mechanism, action, and practice critically thinking about, well, if this is how it's working, then move on to all the other Things, the side effects and. And how it will work in the body.
Yeah, 100%. All right, friends.
All right.
Well, okay. So this is the last life for a few weeks, right?
Yes. So we divide our lives into seasons. I think we officially started that, this quote unquote season. So, yeah, we. We divide it into seasons. So we're going to be taking a little break from this, from, from lives, and we'll come back with the next season.
We'll let you know when that is. I will probably post on Instagram stories and I will post on YouTube, but it'll probably be around octo or so.
But definitely, if you're on YouTube right now, stop everything you're doing right now. Subscribe. Hit the bell. Because we also every week post YouTube videos as well. We actually posted a new one today.
About today's was so, so good.
What to do.
I can't believe you can't remember it.
What to do. When you first start nursing school, you have to do these things. So if you have not looked at it, go back and look because you have to do these things, especially if you just started. There's a couple of you guys that are just starting out briefly. So watch that video, look at it. Do those things asap. That would be great.
So good. So go watch the video on our YouTube channel. Yeah. It's all about what to do in your first few weeks in nursing school. It's going to help you so much.
So we will kick off another season of the Lives.
Yeah.
In October probably around there. So, yeah, be sure to subscribe. Also on Instagram, be sure to follow and check out the stories there because Christina will keep it updated. Instagram is nursing sos and YouTube is YouTube.com nursing sos. So.
All right, friends, there you go.
Hope you guys have fun. We did. We will.
See you guys next time. Don't leave. Stay. Jennifer, I'm glad you'll miss us. We will miss you, too. Yeah. So, you know, keep watching my stories on Instagram. Yeah, it will. I mean, I'll still be around on Instagram, but we're just not doing the lives for a couple of weeks. So we'll be back with you in October. So. Yeah.
But don't worry. Also, all you guys that are nursing SOS members, Christina and Nicole still do their coffee chats.
Oh, yeah, we still do our coffee chat.
So definitely join those too.
Yeah. Hang out with us Monday night. Every Monday.
Yeah.
All right, friends, we'll see you.
Take care, guys.
Bye.
Bye.
Bye, Instagram. Bye, Instagram.
