Customer Reviews

Pharmacology for Pharmacy Technicians, 1e

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Unfortunately the book was a course requirement. I have learned that a new addition is coming out before the end of my course and would be more up to date. I know I saw the pre-order of the book but did not realize that it would have been so out of date, and of course, I could not order any other book for this course. There were a lot of changes in information from 2009 until now. I found that some of the information is more geared to and American client and did not supply enough information for Canadian use. Some Tech info boxes were designed to teach the tech not to use sound-alike products but in fact I feel this makes you think about these products more and distracts from the real information.

We are currently using Pharmacology for Pharmacy Technicians in my Pharmacology course. I have been able to find many, many typos and/or important errors in almost every one of the 33 chapters we've covered so far [one ex. off the top of my head: "Irritable Bowel Syndrome" and "Inflammatory Bowel Disease" being renamed to "Inflammatory Bowel Syndrome" and "Irritable Bowel Disease" - and the book erroneously stating that "Irritable Bowel Disease" is the inflammatory condition].

In an industry where one changed letter in a drug name could sometimes lead to giving patients the wrong medications and causing a lot of harm, I have to agree with the previous poster who can't believe this book made it to print - as a second edition, no less!

The diagrams seem to be mostly (if not all) sourced from other books/sources and they don't always tie in very well with the text, causing more confusion than help. The drug lists are also in need of updating to reflect discontinued products and Canadian availability (ex.: according to the book, Synthroid is not available in Canada but Health Canada's Drug Product Database shows its status as "Active" since 1996-12-31).

I am currently in the process of looking for another pharmacology textbook for my own personal library so I can cross-reference information. I simply do not trust what I read in Pharmacology for Pharmacy Technicians.

Let me tell you about this textbook.

I purchased this text for the "Pharmacology for Pharmacy Technicians" bridging program that I am taking in order to become a registered technician. I have been in the pharmacy field since 2007, and grew up with a mother who is a nurse, and I would read her text books as a bit of light reading when I was a child. I know my stuff.

Some of the glaring mistakes and problems that I have discovered?

1) Spelling errors - of drugs, no less! At least three different spellings for "doxycycline" in the span of two pages! "Sporonox" instead of "Sporanox", and "verdenafil" instead of "vardenafil", etc.
2) Referencing Wikipedia! I've never seen a text do this, but the writers have referenced Wikipedia in their end notes for certain modules. Oh, except that they spell it: "wikiperdia".
3) Incorrect information - apparently a hysterectomy is the "removal of the ovaries"... at least, according to this text!
4) Improper punctuation - at one point they type out "united states" in all small letters.
5) Switching drug brand/generic names - apparently Cialis is verdenafil, and Levitra is tadalafil! Well, at least, according to this text in one spot!

The errors in this text are obvious and very upsetting. It's geared towards Canada (but almost as an afterthought - as in, there is no flow in the text - the comments regarding Canadian statistics and drugs seemed to be pasted in).

These sort of errors would not actually fly in the medical or pharmacy world. It's too bad that, as a second edition, these errors made it though. As the course I am taking is only focusing on certain modules, there are many other modules that I have not read that very likely have errors as well!

A very frustrating read.

I ordered this textbook after my local bookstore failed to deliver the same item in the time allotted. Two co-workers gave Amazon rave reviews. I did recieve my book in a timely fashion, although it was longer time than I was told. What I was NOT happy with was that the book I recieved was used. Not only was there a name scribbled out inside the front cover, but parts of the beginning chapters were highlighted. This was not what I wanted since I thought I was ordering a new textbook, and when studying it is distracting to have to sort through someone elses stuff. Apart from that, the book was what I needed.

very helpful and informative to the module i'm taking right now.the pictures help a lot and the tech alerts, overall its a very nice book

This textbook is simplified and easier to understand than my previous pharmacology textbook back when I was taking the course 3 years ago. I liked the quizzes at the end of each section, side notes, and glossary at the beginning of each section. It comes with a learning notebook as well or by itself. I never bought the student learning notebook but I heard from another student that it helped with the course. As for myself, the textbook was fine for my learning purposes. As well, I liked the way the textbook had tables in each section listing the drugs used for each disease/condition with their American and Canadian brand/generic names.

This is an excellent book for Pharmacy Technicians who want to study Pharmacology. A lot of effort has been has been input with explanatory diagrams and up to date literature concerning all classes of drugs currently prescribed. All the chapters are well written and organized for easy understanding. Definitely this book is a very helpful source to learn Pharmacology. The only thing to be improved is the type of questions at the end of every chapter. The questions in the book are are very easy as compared to the current examination questions which are mostly scenario type.