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professionals: how did you memorize all this stuff?

ugly

ugly

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I just need some serious help.

I know there are people on BL who are professionals in the medical field. I will be in that group after Nov. The lower end of that group, but still.

HOW did you MEMORIZE the bones and the muscles? Their proper names are not recognizable as English more than half the time. How can I remember something I can't even pronounce?

I have googled this and I have binged this but I have not read anything so far that has helped me to really speed up this memorization process.

It took me two hours to figure out how to pronounce hydrochlorathiazide and that's just generic for Hydrodiuril....(I think I memorized that one correctly.)
I have to memorize 200 drug names, their generics, what they are Rx'd for, if they are controlled, and what class they belong to.

I can't relate the drug names to anything I know because these drug names are completely foreign to me. I've never heard of gabapentin. I can't relate it to anything I already know because it doesn't even sound like anything I ever heard of!

On the plus side, I know percocets and darvocets and klonopin ativan xanax vicodin ultram elavil valium meprobamate talwin oxycontin roxicodone....

I've done my own personal research on those. %)

But Coumadin? I thought that was a cooking spice!! Has anyone here gone through med or pharm training, and if so, can you tell me how to memorize all these items?
 
You thought coumadin was a spice? What sort of medicine are you looking into?

As to your question concerning memory, I am afraid there is going to be no answer. Personally, I was born with an unusually keen memory, a trait passed down from my father (a man who even in his old age requires no phonebook/rolodex - he has literally remembered virtually all phone numbers he's dialed more than 2-3 times). He can recite detailed law codes down to the sub-paragraphs etc. Thus, there is little mystery as to why my memory is similarly acute: it is a product of genetics.

I don't know much about techniques or aids to facilitate memorization, as I was fortunate enough to never require the use of mneomics or other tricks to memorize material. I suppose the best advice I could give is to perhaps understand the material rather than memorize it.

There is a song however that may help......"The something's connected to the red thing ; the red thing's connected to my wristwatch"
 
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True, mispronunciation can prove embarrassing, particularly if you find yourself in a position where you must rapidly pronounce a word for the first time. I recall once being scoffed at when I had to pronounce a word I had previously only read, something obscure like ectothiorhodospiraceae.

Drugs and directions however should be pronounced with sufficient clarity as to avoid errors. Poor handwriting alone kills an astonishing amount of patients.
 
Thanks everybody.


I am working hard at it even though its after midnight.

I need to be successful. The economy being what it is, I feel like a total failure. It makes me really depressed. I have quit taking antidepressants and every other thing just so I can make sure I get a job.

Its so fucked up. I mean... I have a letter saying I have another extension coming but every time I file for it, the federal government refuses me.

I spend all most as much time crying as I do studying.

Yes I thought coumadin was a cooking spice. There are many things I do not know, and that is one of them.

Supermemo was and will be a great help. Thank you SO MUCH. I truly appreciate that.

I will be successful. I won't allow any other outcome. Thank you all again very much.
 
You just have to take your time and focus. I dropped everything to study. I did not go hang out with friends. I did not drink. I did no form of drugs. I went to school and stayed home and studied. My 3 year old discovered video games and he was entertained and it made all the difference. I have the same problem as you with pronunciation. I have many apps on my phone for medical professionals. I have one that tells me how to say drug names. I would go into a empty room listen to it and go do what I need to. Even seasoned professionals say the name wrong. In medical terminology you learn there are 1,000 ways to say things and they are all "right." Good luck with school. And on the test you have to pass they usually don't ask about bones and such. It's more critical thinking. Like what would be the first thing you do when a elderly man falls? You have 4 choices 1 wrong 3 right 1 more right than the others.
 
ugly said:
Yes I thought coumadin was a cooking spice. There are many things I do not know, and that is one of them.
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My apologies, I did not intend to make light of this.

Fortunately you seem to be intent on success. Such a mindset can be truly helpful (however thin the veneer ).
 
no one is with out the perception of.
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God Damn, paradise, that's an epic sentence. What did you have for breakfast this morning? Awesome-o's?
 
Flash cards are going to be a big help.

lol, I suppose Coumadin DOES sound like a cooking spice. Be careful when starting IV's on pt's on antocoagulants or with factor 8 deficiency. They bleed like a stuck pig. Taking off the tourniquet as soon as you cannulate the vein will help minimize the mess.
 
RR279 said:
Flash cards are going to be a big help.

lol, I suppose Coumadin DOES sound like a cooking spice. Be careful when starting IV's on pt's on antocoagulants or with factor 8 deficiency. They bleed like a stuck pig. Taking off the tourniquet as soon as you cannulate the vein will help minimize the mess.
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Holy shit I'm not giving anyone any injections. When the very tippy top point of a needle presses down into the skin but just before it goes through, and the skin is pulled down by the needle point, I go fucking crosseyed. The look of it at that moment flips my liver for fucks sake.

I have shivers down my spine.
 
OH and let me add that I remembered Coumadin by writing, "Could men stop the warfare and the bloodshed?"

It uses a little bit of Coumadin with a little bit of warfarin and a little bit of blood.
 
ugly said:
OH and let me add that I remembered Coumadin by writing, "Could men stop the warfare and the bloodshed?"

It uses a little bit of Coumadin with a little bit of warfarin and a little bit of blood.
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That's a good way to remember material, I've used similar techniques in the past.

You're missin' out on the IV's, as much as I hate getting stuck with needles I enjoy starting them on other people. It's an awesome feeling to get a line on pt that's a hard stick after a few others have failed, it lets them know who's the boss man.;)
 
RR279 said:
That's a good way to remember material, I've used similar techniques in the past.

You're missin' out on the IV's, as much as I hate getting stuck with needles I enjoy starting them on other people. It's an awesome feeling to get a line on pt that's a hard stick after a few others have failed, it lets them know who's the boss man.;)
Click to expand...

omg I just woke up on the floor with my laptop laying on my head. Don't tell me these things.
 
the anatomy college course i went through, was one of the most repeated by students, for the very same reason. much the same as pharmaceuticals with the new, Greek or extinct terminology.

as mentioned, it seems memory and many things, are based upon confidence. especially the confidence that 9/10 pharmacists do not depend on memory to make judgement calls about prescriptions. to find your own personal way to memorize what you are needing to seems to be the most common way to memorize such random things.

in anatomy, the body most the words, prefix/suffix are the key-root words to much of the English language. with medications the opposite seems to be true, where words or parts of words are adopted and slightly altered, to no doubt help the consuming public and medical specialists remember the name, along with catch phrases such as "the purple little pill".

since memorizing the IChing for the most part, i can now glance at, and recall number sequences of 20 numbers or greater.

say you have 12219400005561

that easily breaks up into 1-22-19-4(with four zeros)-55-61

one grace, heaven is ten the perfect #, folly with matching zeros, to fill the inner truth. obviously being confident enough about exact numbers is foolish, especially in your line of work but hopefully you get the idea.
 
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