Flash cards, flash cards and more flash cards! Also you can make charts i.e drug, classification, action, side effects etc. Just making the study cards, charts whatever helps to cement them into your brain. I liked the mosby drug book, The cd that comes with the drug books is a life saver when you do care plans in nursing school.

I like the Nursing 2008 book myself, but the FA Davis drug book is also pretty good. I never liked Mosby's, and I don't like Saunders.

Learn your drug classifications first. Examples: beta blockers, calcium chanell blockers, cephalosporins, Loop diuretics, and so forth. Learn how the drugs actually work in the body first. Then learning the names of the drugs, and the general side effects and nursing considerations will be easy because you will know what drugs in those classes actually do to the body.

I just failed pharm (boo). I made good cards according to other students but did not give myself enough time to study them. I had the mosby's book but it was missing alot of info I needed. I bought the Lippincot 2008 and that was sufficient. Its all good though, I'll do better the second time around.

Make flash cards, and create a protype drug chart, Start with the generic name. Drug class, dosage, trade name pregnacy category, contraindications drug-lab-food interactions, and cautions. Secondly, use the Pharmacokinetics which are absorption, distribution, Metabolish, and Excretion, next use Pharmacodynamics: Onset, Peak, Duration. Thirdly, Use the Therapeutic Effects/Uses. Mode of Action: Side Effects, Adverse Reactions, and Life-Threatening side effects. Hope this helped. By the way my favortite Drug Handbook is Lippincott Williams& Wilkins Nursing 2007 or 2008 Drug Handbook.