Katiebug Posted July 27, 2011 Posted July 27, 2011 I just read an acronym to help remember the drugs for fluid overload. I'd never heard it before and thought it might help some of you students. Remember LMNO to make them Pee. Lasix, morphine, nitro and oxygen.
Dustdevil Posted July 27, 2011 Posted July 27, 2011 Never been a fan of encouraging students to memorise acronyms instead of understanding physiological and pharmacological concepts. It ends up encouraging them to just start working their way through the steps of a checklist instead of competently evaluating their patient and his or her needs. If your school leaves you needing acronyms just to do your job, then your school sucks.
Katiebug Posted July 27, 2011 Author Posted July 27, 2011 I disagree. I find them to be helpful study aid. Knowing established treatments for your pathologies is good, and an acronym to help you remember it while you study does not prevent you from knowing why they are established treatments. In fact, they make you think of why they go together and what they each do. Your approach worked well for you, but won't work for everybody. What doesn't work for you doesn't suck, it just doesn't work for you.
paramedicmike Posted July 27, 2011 Posted July 27, 2011 In fact, they make you think of why they go together and what they each do. No. No, they don't. Having been an EMS instructor, I can tell you first hand from many years of direct observational experience (no, not scientific at all but it'll work for the sake of this discussion), all mnemonics do is make you think of the answer to a test question. They don't help you when you get to a real patient who is, in all likelihood, not going to present like a test question. It's an easy shortcut to make people think they're learning something. If this is how your school is teaching you, then Dust is right. Your school sucks. You'll note that this is not personally directed towards you. So don't get bent out of shape over the implication that your school may, in fact, suck.
Katiebug Posted July 27, 2011 Author Posted July 27, 2011 You'll note that this is not personally directed towards you. So don't get bent out of shape over the implication that your school may, in fact, suck. Don't worry, I don't tend to take things personally. There's going to be strong opinions on a forum like this. I have my own. Disagreeing with me does not make me angry, as I may disagree with you with no intent to anger you. Like now. As far as my education goes, I had a great teacher working within a poor program design. Only those of us that were highly motivated made it through. I used every study aid I could get my hands on. If you poo poo acronyms like LMNO to make them Pee, you might as well do away with SAMPLE, OPQRST, DCAP-BTLS and all the others. You're implying that learning these makes people too lazy to learn why they're asking the questions or performing said assessments. I understand where you're coming from, I just disagree. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk 1
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