How to Learn Meds Faster in Nursing School | Nursing School FAQ Series

In this video, I'm going to show you how to learn meds faster in nursing school. I seriously don't know why nursing schools don't teach pharm this way, because it is the best way to learn it. But don't worry, I will walk you through how to do it. So be sure to stay until the end of this video so you don't miss any of these steps because there is a lot. So hit that subscribe button and click the notification bell and let's do this. Hey there friend. My name is Christina Rafano and I am the creator of the nursing school show where we of course help you get better grades and have more free time in nursing school. And you know me and you know that I always want to go above and beyond for you. So I have a free pharmacology cheat sheet for nursing school that will walk you through my top farm tips. So the link is down below in the description, so be sure to get that after you watch this video. Now let's just be real for a moment. There are so many meds to learn in nursing school, like a gazillion. No, it is not easy to learn them all, but it also doesn't have to suck up your whole entire life just to learn them all. All. I'll show you how. So my number one tip is to learn the mechanism of action for the pharmacological or the therapeutic class first. Now, don't freak out if you don't know what that means. The mechanism of action is just, it's a big fancy word that means how does the medication act in the body? That's all it means. What is the medication doing in the body? Now, by learning that mechanism of action of the med CL class, you will save yourself so much time studying because all the medications in that class will have the same or similar mechanisms of action. It's like cutting your work in half. Instead of learning multiple medications that all belong to the same class individually, you can just learn about that med class and then you'll already know most of what you need to know for those individual meds. So learn the mechanism of action for the class, not the mechanism of action for the individual medications within that class. Now, the thing about the mechanism of action that most nursing students don't realize is that the mechanism of action is the foundation for everything else that you need to know about your medications, namely things like the side effects, the nursing assessment. So stick with me here. I'm going to go through an example soon where we can really tie all of this Together. So since the mechanism of action of the medication tells you how it acts in the body, it will also give you a clue as to what side effects might be as well as the things that you'll need to assess for as a nurse. Right. So if you learn how the medication works inside the body, you will be really ready to critically think about the side effects and anything that you as a nurse would need to do to help your patients receive optimal outcomes. That way you don't need to heavily memorize the side effects and the nursing assessment points for, for the medication. You can just use your awesome critical thinking skills and walk through it logically. So if the medication does this in the body, then it makes sense that the side effects would be these things and I'll need to assess for these things. This is exactly what we teach inside of our medication database inside the nursing SOS membership community. And it's a big deal. We walk you through the must know critical thinking points for the medications to help you connect it all back to that mechanism of action. The medication database inside the nursing SOS membership community. It is packed with step by step nursing lectures to help you learn the meds faster and pass your pharmacology exams. And if you're not a nursing SS member yet, you absolutely must join. My friend. It was going to change the game for you in nursing school. There's a link down below in the description for you to check out all of the details. I hope to see you inside soon. Now let's put this into practice and walk through step by step how you would do this while you were studying. So let's use beta blockers as an example and we'll use Metoprolol. Most nursing students know what this is. Now again, we're not going to learn the mechanism of action for the medication Metoprolol. We're learning the mechanism of action for the class beta blockers. So let's walk through it together. Now, what do beta blockers do? They do exactly as they say. They block those betas, they block the beta receptor sites. There are beta 1 receptors in the heart and when, when those beta 1 receptors are stimulated, the heart will contract more and it will be harder and faster. But what happens when these effects are blocked by the beta blocker? Well, the blood pressure and the heart rate both decrease. So we know that beta blockers are going to cause the heart rate and the blood pressure to decrease since that is their mechanism of action. So now we can critically think about what types of states, side effects you might see. In a patient taking a beta blocker medication. And of course, I have another tip to help you with this. As always, when you think about side effects, think about what would happen if the medication worked too well. So in the case of beta blockers, if they worked too well, you may have things like hypotension, dizziness, bradycardia. Right, because the heart would be pumping too slow, causing low blood pressure, and that can cause dizziness and also make the patient feel tired because. Because their heart is slowed down. Right. So you would want to monitor your patients for orthostatic hypotension and falls if they stand up too quickly. Right. So do you see how all that works? We learned the mechanism of action of the class of medications, and then from there we were able to critically think about what the side effects might be and what you might have to assess for. We didn't learn the mechanism of action for metoprolol itself or atenolol specifically the. But instead we learned how all of the drugs in the beta blocker class act in the body. And that way, you know what metoprolol and atenolol both do, not to mention what besoprolol and propranolol and carvedilol do without having to look every single one of them up. You know, the beta blockers. So are you starting to see how life changing this tip is for you? Seriously, it's gonna save you so much time studying your medications and pharmacology in nursing school. You can totally do this. Now, the next tip I have for you is to learn the generic name of the drug first and then the trade name second, if at all. The trade name is basically the brand, whereas the generic name is what it actually is. Now, this might not seem like a big deal up front, but it actually really is. And here's why. The NCLEX in your nursing school exams will always include the generic name, but they won't always list the trade name on your exams. So it's really important that you know what the generic name is, because that is the one that will be listed on your nursing school exams. It won't help you if you only know the trade names of the medication, because sometimes they won't list those on your test. So make sure to learn the generic name so you will be totally prepared to recognize the medications in your nursing school exams, how they are written. Now, if you're not a nursing SOS member yet, be sure to get on the VIP list to be the first to know when enrollment opens again. We have a full medication database like I talked about, where we break down the mechanism of action for each medication in super simple terms so you can actually understand it. And of course we walk you through everything else that you need to know for those medications. There's over 120 medications, so don't worry. We've got you covered for your nursing school exams, so I'm going to put a link down below in the description so you can check out all the details for the Nursing SS Membership community and I hope to see you inside soon. And if you like this video, make sure to hit that like button. Leave a comment below to let me know that you loved it. Of course, share it with your friends and hit that subscribe button and click the notification bell so you never miss out on any videos that we post here. And click on one of these videos right here so you can keep rocking nursing school. And as always my friend, go become the nurse that God created only you to be. And I'll see you next time on the Nursing School show. Take care. Bye bye.