Drugs.

101 Must-Know NCLEX Medications Cheat Sheet

The NCLEX tests the same high-yield drugs every cycle. Learn them by class, not in isolation. Once you can group a med by what it does and tie it to the one n…

Acetaminophen Nursing Considerations & Patient Teaching

Acetaminophen is the drug your patients are most likely already taking before they reach you, often in more than one product at once. That is the whole nursin…

Adrenergic Agonists (Sympathomimetics) Nursing Pharmacology Study Guide

Adrenergic agonists turn on the sympathetic nervous system, so think fight-or-flight: faster, harder heartbeat, bronchodilation, vasoconstriction, raised bloo…

Adrenergic Antagonists (Sympatholytics) Nursing Pharmacology Study Guides

Adrenergic antagonists, or sympatholytics, block the sympathetic nervous system. They occupy adrenergic receptor sites without activating them, so released no…

Adrenocortical Drugs Nursing Pharmacology and Study Guide

Your patient is either on these steroids long-term and cannot stop them abruptly, or getting them as emergency replacement because their adrenal glands have f…

Albuterol Nursing Considerations and Patient Teaching

Albuterol is the rescue inhaler. When a patient is wheezing and tight, this is what opens the airway fast. It is a short-acting beta-agonist (SABA) bronchodil…

Antacids Nursing Pharmacology Study Guide

Antacids neutralize stomach acid by direct chemical reaction and give rapid relief from high acid levels. Two things to keep in front of you: they cause GI ch…

Anthelmintics: Nursing Pharmacology Study Guide

Anthelmintics kill the worms causing the infection. The floor work is narrow: confirm the worm before you treat, push the complete course, and protect nutriti…

Anti-Infective Drugs Nursing Pharmacology and Study Guide

Anti-infective agents act on invading organisms, especially those that cause infection. Scientific investigation began in the 1920s after Paul Ehrlich develop…

Antianginal Drugs Nursing Pharmacology Study Guide

Antianginal drugs restore the balance between the heart's oxygen supply and demand. They dilate the coronary vessels to push more oxygen to ischemic regions a…

Antiarrhythmic Drugs: Nursing Pharmacology Study Guide

Antiarrhythmics treat arrhythmia by altering the cells' automaticity and conductivity. Every cell in the heart can fire spontaneously (automaticity) and gener…

Antiarthritic Drugs

Antiarthritic drugs include gold compounds, which prevent and suppress arthritis in selected patients with rheumatoid arthritis, and other antiarthritis drugs…

Antibiotics: Nursing Pharmacology Study Guide

Antibiotics knock down an invading bacterial population far enough that the patient's own immune system can finish the job. They do not sterilize the patient.…

Anticholinergics (Parasympatholytics) Nursing Pharmacology Study Guide

Anticholinergics oppose acetylcholine, blocking the parasympathetic nervous system, which is why they are also called parasympatholytics. Block the 'rest and …

Antidepressants Nursing Pharmacology Study Guide

Antidepressants raise the concentration of neurotransmitters tied to depressed affect, but the effect takes weeks, not days. That lag is your biggest teaching…

Antidiabetic Agents Nursing Pharmacology and Study Guide

These are the non-insulin, non-sulfonylurea agents you reach for in type 2 diabetes, often layered onto insulin or a sulfonylurea. The class covers alpha-gluc…

Antifungals: Nursing Pharmacology Study Guide

Antifungals treat mycoses, infections caused by fungi. Fungal cell walls are built from chitin and polysaccharides, not the structures antibiotics target, so …

Antihistamines Nursing Pharmacology Study Guide

Antihistamines selectively block histamine at the histamine-1 receptor, cutting the allergic response. They relieve symptoms of seasonal and perennial allergi…

Antihyperlipidemic Drug Study Guide for Nursing Pharmacology

Antihyperlipidemic drugs (lipid-lowering agents) drop serum cholesterol and lipids to treat hyperlipidemia. The reason this matters at the bedside: coronary a…

Antihypertensive Drugs Nursing Pharmacology Study Guide

Antihypertensive drugs hit different points of blood pressure control, so they are usually combined for a synergistic effect. About 90% of hypertension has no…

Antineoplastic Agents: Nursing Pharmacology Study Guide for Nurses

Antineoplastic agents are one arm of chemotherapy. They kill altered human cells, but normal cells take damage too, which is why nearly every adverse effect o…

Antiparkinsonism Drugs Nursing Pharmacology Study Guide

Antiparkinsonism agents manage the signs and symptoms of Parkinson's disease, a progressive, chronic neurological disorder marked by lack of coordination that…

Antiprotozoal Drugs Nursing Pharmacology Study Guide

Antiprotozoals treat protozoan infections. Protozoans are single-celled organisms that move through several life-cycle stages, including at least one phase as…

Antiseizure Drugs: Nursing Pharmacology Study Guide

Antiseizure agents (also called antiepileptic drugs or anticonvulsants) manage epilepsy, the most prevalent neurological disorder. The agent of choice depends…

Antitussives - Nursing Pharmacology Study Guide

A patient with an unproductive, hacking cough that won't quit gets exhausted, strains muscles, and irritates the airway further. That is where antitussives co…

Antiviral Drugs: Nursing Pharmacology Study Guide

Antivirals do not cure most viral disease. They slow replication while the immune system does the real work, so two things drive outcomes on the floor. Start …

Anxiolytic and Hypnotic Drugs Nursing Pharmacology Study Guide

These drugs change how a patient responds to the world by depressing the CNS. At low doses they are anxiolytics (they blunt tension and fear), at higher doses…

Aspirin Nursing Considerations & Drug Classification

Aspirin is everywhere: OTC bottles, dozens of combination products, and daily antiplatelet regimens. The job on the floor is knowing the patient's total salic…

Atorvastatin Nursing Considerations & Patient Teaching

Atorvastatin is the statin you will hand out more than any other. It lowers LDL and triglycerides and raises HDL by blocking HMG-CoA reductase, the rate-limit…

Bronchodilators and Antiasthmatics Nursing Pharmacology

Bronchodilators open the airways. You reach for them to relieve or prevent bronchial asthma and to treat the bronchospasm that comes with COPD. Three classes …

Cardiotonic-Inotropic Drugs Nursing Pharmacology Study Guide

Cardiotonic-inotropic drugs make a failing heart squeeze harder. In heart failure the heart cannot pump enough blood, so organs are starved of oxygen and nutr…

Cholinergic Agonists (Parasympathomimetics) Nursing Pharmacology Study Guide

Cholinergic agonists act at the same receptor sites as acetylcholine (ACh) and ramp up ACh activity throughout the body. Because those receptors sit everywher…

Coagulation Modifying Drugs: Nursing Pharmacology Study Guide

These drugs work three different steps of clot biology. Antiplatelet drugs block the platelet plug. Anticoagulants interrupt the clotting cascade and thrombin…

Decongestants Nursing Pharmacology Study Guide

Decongestants cause local vasoconstriction, cutting blood flow to the mucous membranes of the nasal passages and sinus cavities. The nasal decongestants (symp…

Diuretic Drugs: Nursing Pharmacology Study Guide

Diuretics pull sodium out, and water follows. By blocking sodium reabsorption in the renal tubules, they drop intravascular volume and stop fluid from leaking…

Expectorants and Mucolytics - Nursing Pharmacology Guide

Both of these drug classes move mucus, but they answer different problems. Expectorants thin lower respiratory tract secretions so a patient with a dry, nonpr…

Female Reproductive System Drugs – Nursing Pharmacology

The female reproductive system runs on a cycle, so almost everything that acts on it is a hormone or a hormone-like agent, and changing one piece of the cycle…

Furosemide Nursing Considerations and Patient Teaching

Furosemide (Lasix) is the loop diuretic you push more than any other, and three things keep you busy at the bedside: it dumps potassium, it pulls volume and p…

Gabapentin Considerations and Patient Teaching

Gabapentin shows up everywhere: seizures, neuropathic pain, restless legs, off-label for anxiety and alcohol withdrawal. Two things drive your bedside care. I…

General and Local Anesthetic Agents: Nursing Pharmacology

Anesthetics cause complete or partial loss of sensation, and where they act tells you what to watch. General anesthetics depress the central nervous system (C…

Glucose-Elevating Agents: Nursing Pharmacology Study Guide

These are the drugs you reach for when blood glucose crashes below 40 mg/dL and the patient can't take sugar by mouth. Two agents do the job: diazoxide and gl…

Heparin Nursing Considerations and Patient Teaching [Drug Guide]

Heparin is a high-alert anticoagulant, and the things that hurt patients are dosing errors and vial mix-ups, not the pharmacology. You give it to prevent and …

Histamine-2 Antagonists

Histamine-2 (H2) antagonists shut down acid production at the parietal cell, so they treat ulcers, reflux, and hypersecretory states. The names all end in -ti…

Hydromorphone (Dilaudid): Nursing Considerations and Patient Teaching

Hydromorphone is a high-alert opioid agonist for moderate to severe pain, and it is roughly five to seven times more potent than morphine. That potency is the…

Hypothalamic Agents

Hypothalamic agents either inhibit or stimulate hormone release from the anterior pituitary. Most of the natural hypothalamic hormones are not available as dr…

Immunostimulants Nursing Pharmacology Study Guide

Immunostimulants energize the immune system when it is exhausted from a prolonged invasion or needs help against a specific pathogen or cancer cell. They are …

Immunosuppressants Nursing Pharmacology Study Guide

These drugs deliberately turn the immune system down, usually paired with corticosteroids, to stop the body from rejecting a transplanted organ or attacking i…

Inhaled Steroids Nursing Pharmacology Study Guide

Inhaled steroids are controllers, not rescue drugs, and that is the line your patient has to understand. They calm airway inflammation over weeks; they do not…

Insulin: Nursing Pharmacology Study Guide

Insulin controls glucose in diabetes, and it is the only parenteral antidiabetic agent for replacing low endogenous insulin. It is the hormone the pancreatic …

Lisinopril Nursing Considerations and Patient Teaching

Lisinopril is an ACE inhibitor you give for hypertension and heart failure. Two things put patients in trouble: angioedema, which is an airway emergency, and …

Lovenox Nursing Considerations & Patient Teaching for Enoxaparin

Lovenox (enoxaparin) is a low molecular weight heparin you give subcut to prevent and treat clots. The thing that hurts patients is bleeding, so know the anti…

Lung Surfactants Nursing Pharmacology Study Guide

Lung surfactants replace what a premature lung cannot make yet. Without surfactant the alveoli will not stay open, gas exchange fails, and the infant crashes.…

Male Reproductive System Drugs

These drugs fall into three jobs: androgens (male steroid hormones), anabolic steroids built off testosterone, and the erectile dysfunction drugs that restore…

Metoprolol Nursing Considerations and Patient Teaching

Metoprolol is a beta-blocker. It blocks adrenaline at cardiac beta receptors, which slows the rate, drops contractility, and lowers the heart's workload and b…

Morphine Nursing Considerations and Patient Teaching [Drug Guide]

Morphine is the reference opioid for moderate to severe pain, from acute and postoperative care to palliative and end-of-life care. It works, and it carries r…

Muscle Relaxants Nursing Pharmacology Study Guide

Skeletal muscle damage from injury or accident can be temporary or, when nerves are lost, permanent. Spasticity is sustained muscle contraction driven by the …

Narcotics, Narcotic Antagonists, and Antimigraine Agents

These drugs work on the brain and spinal cord to change how pain impulses from peripheral nerves get processed, so pain perception and tolerance shift. On the…

Neuromuscular Junction Blocking Agents Nursing Pharmacology

These drugs paralyze skeletal muscle directly at the neuromuscular junction without the full CNS depression and systemic load that general anesthesia carries.…

Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs (NSAIDs) and Related Agents

NSAIDs give strong anti-inflammatory and analgesic effects without the adverse load of corticosteroids, but they carry their own cardiovascular and GI risk, a…

Pantoprazole Nursing Considerations and Patient Teaching

Pantoprazole shuts down stomach acid at the pump. It is a proton pump inhibitor, so it does not work for immediate relief, it works over days, and the floor c…

Parathyroid Agents (Bisphosphonates, Calcitonins) Nursing Pharmacology

Parathyroid agents move serum calcium in one direction or the other. Antihypocalcemic agents raise a low calcium; antihypercalcemic agents (bisphosphonates an…

Pharmacology Cheat Sheet: Generic Drug Stems

The fastest way into nursing pharmacology is the generic name stem. Drugs in the same therapeutic class usually share one. Most stems land at the end of the n…

Pharmacology Nursing Mnemonics & Tips

Pharmacology is a volume problem. There is too much to hold in your head at the bedside, so you anchor the high-stakes facts to a mnemonic and recall them fas…

Pituitary Drugs: Nursing Pharmacology Study Guide

Most pituitary drugs you give are either replacement therapy or tumor suppression, and the two failures sit at opposite ends: too little growth hormone in kid…

Proton Pump Inhibitors Nursing Pharmacology Study Guide

Proton pump inhibitors shut acid down at the source, the gastric proton pump, so they do not relieve symptoms on the spot the way an antacid does. They work o…

Psychotherapeutic Drugs: Nursing Pharmacology Study Guide

Psychotherapeutic agents do not cure psychosis. They make thought processes and behavior manageable enough that adults and children can perform activities of …

Salicylates Nursing Pharmacology and Study Guide

Salicylates are one of the oldest anti-inflammatory groups, salicylic acid compounds with anti-inflammatory, antipyretic, and analgesic action. They are relat…

Sulfonylureas Nursing Pharmacology and Study Guide

Sulfonylureas lower blood glucose by squeezing more insulin out of the pancreas, so they only work when the patient still has functioning beta cells. That rul…

Thyroid Agents Nursing Pharmacology and Study Guide

Thyroid drugs go one of two directions: replace hormone the gland cannot make, or shut down a gland making too much. The gland sits in the middle of the neck …