How and Why to Make Nursing Drug Cards

Nursing school is challenging, but with the right preparation you can succeed. According to the National League for Nursing, nearly 20% of nursing school students drop out without ever finishing their nursing degree. One big reason is that they feel overwhelmed by the academic demands and sheer volume of material they need to learn.

It's understandable—but also avoidable. If you find yourself struggling, don't pull the plug on your dream. Instead, grab a pen and some index cards and develop a new study habit that could help you succeed. You're about to learn how to make one of the most valuable “secret weapon” study aids for nursing students: medication cards, also known as drug cards.

How to create drug cards for Nursing School

Drug cards are just like the flash cards you probably used to learn math and spelling back in grade school—but this time, you're learning medication instead of multiplication. Here's all you have to do to make these great study aids for nursing students:

Each time you encounter or learn about a different medication in your LPN to RN program or other nursing program, pull out a blank index card and write the following information on it:

Absolutely must include

• Name of the Medication/Drug - list the generic name first and brand names after (put this at the top, or even by itself on the flip side)
• Drug class
• Mechanism of action
• Indications or what it’s used for
• Common and life threatening side effects

Nice to have

• Any major contraindications or patients who should not receive this drug
• Route of administration 
• Things you should assess for before, during and after providing the drug
• Patient education that needs to occur
• Common antidotes if known

What do these categories mean? 

Name 

This one is self explanatory. You want to learn the name of the drug first and foremost on your nursing drug cards so you can prepare for your nursing school exams. Beyond that, you want to be able to converse intelligently and accurately with other healthcare professionals as well as patients when discussing medication. When learning the name of a drug, you want to first learn the generic name followed by any brand names. Most of the tests you take in and after nursing school will ask about generics rather than brands, but it’s a good idea to know both. 

Class

The drug class provides information on the drug’s pharmacological category or therapeutic group. Learning the drug class will help you recognize both similarities and differences between drugs. This makes it easier to understand the drug’s effects and actions. 

Mechanism of Action

The Mechanism of Action describes how a drug works at the molecular or cellular level. Committing this knowledge to memory as part of your drug cards for nursing school will help you better understand how a drug works within the body so you can better anticipate the effects patients will experience and any potential interactions. 

Indications

The indications of a drug describe its approved uses or the conditions it is prescribed to treat. Including these indications on your drug cards will help you understand when to administer a drug appropriately and effectively and for its intended purpose. 

Side effects

As you probably know, the side effects of a drug are the undesirable or adverse consequences patients may experience after taking a drug. Making sure you are aware of both common and serious side effects is crucial to your ability to recognize and manage them should they arise. This knowledge will allow you to better monitor patients and to react quickly if needed.  

Contraindications

Contraindications include anything (symptoms, allergies, medical conditions, etc.) that indicate a drug may be harmful to a patient and they should not receive it. It’s important to understand both absolute contraindications and relative contraindications of drugs so you can best care for your patients. 

Route of Administration 

The route of administration in pharmacology is the way in which a drug is taken into the body. When creating study aids for nursing students, it’s important to know the benefits and limitations of various routes of administration to have a better understanding of how long it will take a drug to begin affecting the body. 

Education

Educating patients about the drugs that are being administered including their intended purpose and any side effects they may experience is a great way to help them (and you) better understand what is going on in their bodies. Oftentimes, a patient will be able to provide you with information about their body they may not otherwise know to relay if they were not educated properly. 

Antidotes 

Antidotes help reverse the side effects of drug toxicities, poisoning or overdoses a patient may experience after taking a medication. Having knowledge of antidotes as you create your drug cards for nursing school can help you prevent discomfort and even life-threatening emergencies in the future. 

What to do with drug cards? 

Once you’ve created a drug card, just add the card to your deck and make a point to review these important study aids for nursing students and quiz yourself whenever you can. Try to reach a point when you can look at a single line, particularly the name or the indication, and recite all the other information on the card. You'll embed the data in your brain and commit it to long-term memory in no time.

You can organize your nursing drug cards randomly, according to classification, by mechanism of action, route of administration or any way that works best for you. (You might even try mixing up the organization system from time to time and see how this affects your recall or the information.) 

We recommend starting with the most commonly prescribed medications in a given category and expanding from there as you memorize your cards. If you're partnering with Achieve to further your studies, our instructors and tutors can help you prepare drug cards for nursing school and give you advice on which medications to include.

The best thing about drug cards for nursing school is that they come in handy even after you complete nursing school and begin your nursing career. You can use them to study for most every exam throughout your entire LPN to RN program, and even when preparing for the CPNE and NCLEX exams. Nursing drug cards often come in handy even after graduation. Many health care facilities require applicants to pass a pharmacology test—and guess what study aid will help you handle that situation with ease? You guessed it - drug cards. 

Drug cards are a simple idea, but they absolutely work as a study aid for nursing students. 

To learn more about drug cards and other study aids, our LPN to RN program, or online nursing programs in general, contact Achieve Test Prep today.

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