How to prepare for pharmacology on the HESi exit exam

hesi pharm

Medication questions are questions that have a high probability of being on your HESI exit exam. Here are a few tips on how to prepare for pharmacology of nursing for the hesi.

Instructions

1. Know the name of the drug, its class and other medications in the same class.

2. Know the physiologic action of the medication.
   The type of reactions that take place in the body when a medication i singested is important. For example anti hypertensives bring down blood pressure by different mechanisms. One is to increase vasodilation.

3. Know the therapeutic use of the medication so you know what the expected outcome of the medicaton should be. Pehaps the therapeutic use is to reuce blood pressure.

4. What are the side effects of the medication? This is important information for safety reasons which is big on any nursing exam and for patient teaching and monitoring.

5. Know what labs need to be monitored. FOr example if a client is on lithium , you want to monitor sodium levels and if the client is on digoxin you want to monitor pottassium levels. If the medication is excreted by the liver then you need to check liver function tests etc.

6. KNow what the nurse is expected to do when administering any medication.
   Somethings like possible reactions and what medications to give to counter the reactions, when to stop giving a medication, what to teach the client on a particular medication are a few examples.

7. Hope this helps you with your nursing pharmacology. The medications can be a litlle hard to remeber but if you can study all the medications in the HESI book. You are more likely to see those on your HESI exit exam. Good luck.

Resources

• review courses for student nurses