Pharm It's NOT just ME!!

[Hound dog]

Nope. Not just me. After those first 2 tests.....that were "easy" relatively speaking, of course........The entire class has bombed out. And while knowing my friends are just as worried about passing this course as I am doesn't make me feel better, knowing that I'm not the only one studying my fanny off and still failing DOES! Whew!

In fact, people, as a class we bombed the exam on endocrine so badly she was afraid to post the grades for fear we wouldn't come back. (or maybe that we'd report her to the dean....hmmm) We got to class last week worried to near frantic over the endocrine grades, plus over the exam for last week....and suddenly she groups us together to take the exam. That did it, we knew before she told us that we'd all failed the endocrine exam.

Granted. Insulin is hard because there is just so darn much to remember with them all...... I scored a 70...which in our classes is failing. Seriously, you would not believe me if I told you how many hours of study I put into that exam....or heck, all of them. My friend who sits next to me got a 38. And I know she knew it because she was part of my study group. We all knew them awfully well. But we weren't strong on it. And boy does that make a difference! Too easy to be tripped up on something you know but aren't strong on.

So we had a Come to Jesus Meetin'. lol This really upset the instructor and she admitted the problem must be with the way she's teaching. (gee ya think?) And she had us take a piece of paper and write out for each question we missed why we happened to chose the answer we did.....so she could maybe see where the problem is. And she gave us 10 pts added to our scores for doing it. Which helped bump my grade to a passing 80 percent.

For one question we already know she's going to throw it out and give us the points. The answers were just too close together to really differentiate between them. (the 2 right ones that is)

So there is a new plan.

1. Each week before the test she will be going over the material and answering questions for an hour.
2. She will be teaching us Math that we were supposed to get last quarter, but didn't. (which is really hurting us now)

Concerning the math......it was taught by the instructor that is retiring right after we graduate. It was a joke to put it mildly. She taught the class the formula for drug calculations. Told them it was ALL they needed to know, that once they had the formula down they could do it all. Tested us on that formula with the easiest math problems I've ever seen. When we passed with 100 percent we didn't have to come back to class.

Now to nursing students the lure of getting out of a class early is paradise, gives you more time to study for the other classes. So of course we went for it hook line and sinker. We had less (I kid you not) than a month of class folks before all of us passed that easy test.

What we didn't know.......because once we finished math we put that book away and didn't bother to pick it up again........was that there was TONS of other info she was also supposed to be teaching from it.

So pharm instructor, who assumes we know the TONS of other stuff in the book because we all passed the math class, throws in questions with info we'd get from the math book. Like IVs and such. And we didn't know where she was coming up with those questions because that stuff wasn't in our pharm book.....so of course we were getting them wrong.

So when pharm instructor asked us about Math we were up front and honest. I think I saw steam coming from her ears. Not directed at us either, but at the retiring instructor who dropped the ball big time. And while we were at it.....we let her know we're getting the same sort of teaching for medication Surg with the retiring instructor as well. It's mid quarter and we've just finished unit 1 in medication surg and it was a TAKE HOME TEST!!! medication surg is now 2 units behind fundementals and pharm and they're all supposed to be coordinated together to teach on the same topics.

So now along with pharm I have to work my Math book and do math for pharm class as she is requiring us to bring our Math books in. And that I'm NOT complaining about at all!!! And she will work with us on that as well as pharm. And she is contacting the fundementals instructor and letting her know retiring instructor has dropped the ball big time in medication surg so she can pick up the slack there.

Nothing will be done to retiring instructor. She not only is tenure, but she used to run the program not long ago for years and years.

I just got an email from the pharm instructor. The exam this week is cancelled. (which means we also all flunked last week's exam......and man I thought I really knew that one!) And she wants us to all bring in all our notes, note cards and such so she can see HOW we are studying to see if she can suggest ways to help make it easier.

So..........No, it's most certainly not just me. Which makes me feel a bit less stupid. sigh Cuz I keep thinking if we had just a little more time that 1 week to learn 3 chapters full of stuff I might be able to remember it all.......

And I've put into place an old "tried and true" method I learned 30 years ago the 1st time I went thru nursing school. I'm doing my own Outline form of notes for each chapter. It of course takes forever. But it makes certain I don't "glance" over something important and gets all the information into my notes. It makes me not just read the material, but really read the material Know what I mean??

And I've ordered flash cards my friend found online that have all the info on each drug set up pretty much like our books. Not cheap. But she says they're really helping her.

If that doesn't work, and the instructor can't come up with something to learn so darn many different drugs in just a week.......I'm out of ideas. Drilling me doesn't work. Both husband and easy child have tried. Plus I do it with my friends at school so we can drill each other.

If I can pass this quarter and next quarters pharm it's an easy slide into graduation. Forth quarter is a breeze compared to this (according to the forth quarter students we've talked to)

Lordy pharm makes chemistry seem easy.

 

[judi]

Oh Lisa - I'm so sorry that you are having such a hard time. You are so right that pharm and the math are courses you will fall back on again and again. If there is anything I can help with, please feel free to message me.

I'm an advanced practice nurse in nephrology.

 

[Hound dog]

Thanks Judi! If I have questions I'll PM you, if you don't mind. It can take days to get a reply to an emailed question from the pharm teacher. She's got 8 other classes, so can't always get right back to us.

I just can't figure out why it's not sticking worth a darn. And it's driving me nuts.

Some of the problem is that it is going so darn fast and she's doing up to 3 chapters at a time. That's a wealth of info to try to learn really well in only a week. Until the Come to Jesus Meetin' last week there has been NO classroom instruction. And I know that has been hurting me big time. I relate what I read and study to what is said and seen in the classroom and that's how I remember. Once we're doing medications in clinical they'll begin to really stick for good.....if I can make it that far. I'm a hands on type of person if you want it to stay in my long term memory.

I've been working on both math and pharm today. The actural math itself I have down pretty darn good. I took the same class last year before entering the program to get a head start. But I've noticed reading the drug labels for the math problems is re-enforcing the generic-trade name relationship for me that just trying to memorize wasn't doing.

I was prepared for pharm to be hard. It is the hardest part of the entire program. But monumental, I wasn't prepared for. sigh Of course I also thought it would be taught in the classroom, not online. ugh!

Hugs

 

[everywoman]

Jana is sooooo lucky. She is taking her 2nd accounting course in the series she had to take for her degree. She took the first on almost 3 years ago. It covers Chapters 1-9, this course picks up at 10. She had a comprehensive excercise to complete today. She got to the end of the first balance sheet and was WAY off. She called her instructor---who had given her the # and they worked back through the sheet and found the part she had missed----instructor gave her instruction on the phone, with the book, she was then able to finish the rest of the project. I love it when teachers go above and beyond to help their students. I hope the pharm teacher will do the same for ya'll.

 

[TerryJ2]

Um, what's the point in taking an instructed/instruction class if the prof isn't present? Sheesh.
3 chapters with-no personal instruction consititutes a refund, in my humble opinion.

The only advice I have, other than the obvious, to go back and redo the math book, etc., it to learn pneumonic methods of memorization. My husband uses them to this day.

 

[1905]

This really says a lot about the teacher! That's all I have to say about the subject. I am sorry this is causing you much stress and worry, what the heck happened to the ten extra points making you pass? You will get throught this! I know how dedicated you are. You'll do it. She sounds like she knows it, and why aren't you all knowing it? She isn't teaching correctly. That stinks. Do your best and keep plugging away!

 

[Hound dog]

I did get those 10 extra points that gave me a passing grade on that one. And I did get 100 on the following quiz. I TOLD her if she'd test like that for the exams I'd ace the darn things. lol

Yep. Alot is her lack of teaching skills. Every class she's ever had has the same complaints. I just hope we can all come together on a way we can do well and pass the darn class and know what we're supposed to know. This stuff is important.

 

[donna723]

Lisa, I am SO glad you're finally getting it together with the instructor! I know the pharm part is one of the most difficult but it's not supposed to be impossible!

I know when my daughter was in nursing school, they agonized over that part! The week before their exams, she stayed with another student who lived close to the school to save the two hours a day of driving time that she could be studying. They quizzed each other for hours and made up flash cards to use. She had to develop her own study methods too. Even back in high school, she could not retain it all if she just read the material. She started making tons of notes, sometimes even copying down complete chapters out of the text books. Somehow, if she had to concentrate on it long enough to write it all down, she retained it. Whatever works!

 

[judi]

Lisa - is this an online classe or in-class?

Also, what book are you using? I'm doing a post-grad adv pharm for pediatrics now and the book we use by Richard Lehne is fantastic. I had used Koda-Kimble in the past for another grad pharm class and its also the one used by the undergrads. However, the Lehne textbook made me throw the Koda-Kimble out in the trash.

 

[Hound dog]

Judi

This was to be a class taught for 2 hrs twice a week in the classroom. Instructors let students vote, and told them classroom was no different than online, and the vote turned it into a hybrid class. So basically it's online. All we've done up to this point in the classroom is take our exams. We have 1 day a week in class.

The book we're using is Pharmacology for Nurses A pathophysiologic Approach By Michael Patrick Adams, Leland Norman Holland, Jr, and Paula Manuel Bostwick.

And I know for a fact the instructor is testing us out of last years edition which is different from the one we're using. I'm trying to get my hands on that edition. easy child is asking students she has for clinical if any of them have any to sell.

As I've said before........I think this is a class that ought to be taught in a classroom. At least for the first quarter when you're trying to get the hang of how to study this stuff. The class is kicking themselves now for voting for the hybrid. I didn't vote. It was a day I was absent last quarter.

Maybe you can answer one question for me. I was told that studying the prototype drugs for each classification and really knowing them was the key to knowing the rest of the drugs in the same class. You know for adverse effects, contraindications ect. That while the not all the drugs in a class necessarily have all things in common, they do have the majority in common. This is why they give you a prototype for each classification.

That's what the instructor said. And easy child agreed.

But if that's the case, it's not working. I do that......and the instructor will seem to pick some obscure adverse effect or something and put it in a question every time. And usually it's one I either didn't notice in the reading or didn't know well enough to have it pop into my head. So of course I miss the question. And for the insulins this didn't work at all. They're all too different for their durations and peaks and such.......so I didn't really see the point to having prototypes for those...... Oh, and most of the time the book doesn't even list the pharmacokinetics of the non prototype drugs in the different classes that aren't the prototype.......but she will have questions with that information.

Maybe I just misunderstand the whole thing with the prototype drugs. lol I dunno. But I plan to have a long list of questions ready for her on thursday. And the other students are making lists too.

 

[judi]

I am not familiar with that text but agree that pharm is much better in a classroom versus online setting. If I can help, just PM me.

Take care, it does get easier and it WILL be worth it.

 

[Marguerite]

I've never formally studied pharmacology, although I have studied some aspects of it where it related to parasitology and pesticides.

I remember studying endocrinology - I had two really good lecturers. As human beings, they were utter *^^%*(&s. But very entertaining and effective teachers in a lecture theatre. One of them had actually put together a small booklet in detail, of hormones, their origin and their effects. We had about 8 weeks of lectures and prac on this. I aced it, but it was a while ago.

A suggestion for you re study (if it can help) - I used to make myself a snack (in my case, a bowl of fresh-picked home grown tomatoes) and sit and snack while I read my textbooks cover to cover, as if they were a novel. Sometimes I'd summarise as I went, but often it as simply a general read. Then I might go over it again afterwards to work on a summary. Yes, even Maths. I'd run the problems (examples) in my head and make sure I understood them.

There is a continuity of flow with information in a textbook, from one chapter to the next, which can help give you an overall understanding in broad. This in turn can boost your confidence with the fine detail. Reading the lot give you the connectedness and confidence.

Your course lecturers sound very flawed.

Marg

 

[SRL]

Lordy pharm makes chemistry seem easy.

You are a brave soul. Daisy. I had to retrieve stoichiometry from the dark recesses of my brain last night to help my son study for his chem today. It was still there, but the ol' neurons were seriously rusty.

I'm glad for the sake of your whole class that your instructor is understanding and supportive. I once had a microbiology teacher that was so inflexible that he had a question on the test over content that none of us recognized. It wasn't our notes, the lectures that some class members had taped, or the reading. Turns out it was in the next chapter and instead of admitting he was wrong he told us that the truly exceptional student would have read ahead. We all got the test question wrong.

Hang in there--

 

[Marg's Man]

Lordy pharm makes chemistry seem easy.

What's easy about this? I was given this paper to read to today...
Unusual Noncovalent Interaction Between the Chelated Cu(II) Ion and the pi Bond in the Vitamin B13 Complex, cis-Diammine(orotato)coppper(II): Theoretical and Vibrational Spectroscopy Studies

Oh well involving Vitamin B13 derivatives and their chemistry as it does I guess it qualifies as Pharmacology and proves you are right.

Marg's Man