Home meds ... arghhhh

[jwraider]

Hey guys... little frustrated here.

Currently attending a paramedic academy and the instructors from time to time like to say "you guys really should be learning your home meds..." (we are about 5 months from the internship phase)

Right . Great. Thanks.

I would really like to go into my internship with home meds being a strength (fairly important factor and all in the assessment!) but it seems like the way to learn them is though experience. There are just so many in my book without rhyme or reason to match them to their action.

I have been trying to use scenarios which include home meds to practice and everytime I see a med I look up what it does but it just doesn't seem like enough (memorizing the book seems impossible).

I know lot's of excuses ! Anyone have advice or a method I could use to start building my knowdlege and retain it for actual use? My next course of action is to try and find a resource that narrows it down to commonly seen meds (and work from there).

Thanks so much!!

[reaper]

JW,

You will learn the common ones, when you deal with them all the time.

They put out new drugs faster then you can learn them. My advise is buy a pocket guide. You can look up any med, that you don't know off hand.

This in my mind is being prepared. It only takes a second to look it up and know what you are dealing with. This is much better then guessing if you remember it correctly! :wink:

[Doczilla]

Look for patterns in generic names. Classes of drugs often have similar generic names.

Some common ones:

Blood pressure meds:

Furosemide, torsemide: loop diuretics.

HCTZ, thiazide: diuretic, thiazide type

Anything ending in -pril is an ACE inhibitor (lisinopril, enalapril).

Anything ending in -sartan is an angiotensin receptor antagonist (losartan, irbesartan).

Anything ending in -olol is a beta blocker (metoprolol, atenolol, nadolol, acebutolol, pindolol). Also add carvedilol and labetalol.

Hydralazine

Metformin, glipizide, glyburide, glimepiride: diabetic meds.

Insulin, obviously.

Others to know:

digoxin (lanoxin, Digitek)

prednisone, prednisolone (steroids)

Potassium chloride

SSRIs and other antidepressants: (brand names, too tired to look up the right generic ones) paxil, prozac, zoloft, celexa, lexapro, effexor, wellbutrin.

Tricyclic antidepressants: amitriptylene, nortriptylene, desiprimine

Benzodiazepine sedatives: diazepam, temazepam, flumazepam, triazolam, etc.

Those are some of the most common ones.

Dosage is not so important to know, but general mechanism of action is. Start there.

'zilla

[AnthonyM83]

You might already have these down, because they're so common, but for the common household pain meds, you could spend sometime in the medicine isle at Target or a Walgreens/CVC. See the name, then look at the box to see the generic name. Found myself doing that when buying ibuprofen.

[Asysin2leads]

My advice: Learn the generic names, then match them up with trade names. I.e. don't think valium, think diazepam, don't think welbutrin, think bupropion hcl. Its easier to know the generics and miss a few brand names then to know a bunch of brand names and forget what the generic is. Its also easier to reference a generic in an index if you just plain don't know then it is to go looking for the brand name.

Also, as Doczilla pointed out, there is some rhyme and reason to the generics, particularly the suffixs, all generic benzodiazepines end in -am

[DwayneEMTP]

Look for patterns in generic names. Classes of drugs often have similar generic names.

Some common ones:

Blood pressure meds:

Furosemide, torsemide: loop diuretics.

HCTZ, thiazide: diuretic, thiazide type

Anything ending in -pril is an ACE inhibitor (lisinopril, enalapril).

Anything ending in -sartan is an angiotensin receptor antagonist (losartan, irbesartan).

Anything ending in -olol is a beta blocker (metoprolol, atenolol, nadolol, acebutolol, pindolol). Also add carvedilol and labetalol.

Hydralazine

Metformin, glipizide, glyburide, glimepiride: diabetic meds.

Insulin, obviously.

Others to know:

digoxin (lanoxin, Digitek)

prednisone, prednisolone (steroids)

Potassium chloride

SSRIs and other antidepressants: (brand names, too tired to look up the right generic ones) paxil, prozac, zoloft, celexa, lexapro, effexor, wellbutrin.

Tricyclic antidepressants: amitriptylene, nortriptylene, desiprimine

Benzodiazepine sedatives: diazepam, temazepam, flumazepam, triazolam, etc.

Those are some of the most common ones.

Dosage is not so important to know, but general mechanism of action is. Start there.

'zilla

Pretty cool Doc, thanks for that!

Dwayne

[Capman]

You might already have these down, because they're so common, but for the common household pain meds, you could spend sometime in the medicine isle at Target or a Walgreens/CVC. See the name, then look at the box to see the generic name. Found myself doing that when buying ibuprofen.

Stand there too long, and all of the cameras will be pointed in your direction. LOL

I keep an updated pocket guide as new meds are continually being introduced faster than those books can keep up with them. But, they do help. I come across items that are not in the book from time to time, but usually family or the patient has the knowledge of what the medication is for. This of course does not help for the patient who has no clue about what they are taking, but for the most part; they usually do.

Hope this helps some.

[Scaramedic]

Great list Doczilla, only one thing to add.

One of the most common drugs for elderly people, especially A-fib patients who are on Lanoxin.

Coumadin or Warfarin - A blood thinner that keeps clots from forming in the heart due to the A-fib.

If I had a dime for every patient I've had on Coumadin I wouldn't need to work in EMS anymore.

[unknown]

Look for patterns in generic names. Classes of drugs often have similar generic names.

Some common ones:

Blood pressure meds:

Furosemide, torsemide: loop diuretics.

HCTZ, thiazide: diuretic, thiazide type

Anything ending in -pril is an ACE inhibitor (lisinopril, enalapril).

Anything ending in -sartan is an angiotensin receptor antagonist (losartan, irbesartan).

Anything ending in -olol is a beta blocker (metoprolol, atenolol, nadolol, acebutolol, pindolol). Also add carvedilol and labetalol.

Hydralazine

Metformin, glipizide, glyburide, glimepiride: diabetic meds.

Insulin, obviously.

Others to know:

digoxin (lanoxin, Digitek)

prednisone, prednisolone (steroids)

Potassium chloride

SSRIs and other antidepressants: (brand names, too tired to look up the right generic ones) paxil, prozac, zoloft, celexa, lexapro, effexor, wellbutrin.

Tricyclic antidepressants: amitriptylene, nortriptylene, desiprimine

Benzodiazepine sedatives: diazepam, temazepam, flumazepam, triazolam, etc.

Those are some of the most common ones.

Dosage is not so important to know, but general mechanism of action is. Start there.

'zilla

I found this very helpful-- I took a call for a possible overdose- crew was trying to gleen what ever they could to be prepared on the flight to the pt-- I used what I just learned here to help the mother describ just what exactly the pt had Overdosed on............ (mother found daughter down in her own apartment where she resided alone)

[Scaramedic]

OT a bit but Incog's post reminded me of my personal record for a patient on medications. 29!! 29 oral medications this patient took per day. I cannot even imagine how she kept track of them. Sorry back on topic.