Read this if Pharmacology Scares You

Many athletic training students are overwhelmed by pharmacology

If you’ve ever been a little puzzled about how to approach pharmacology as it relates to the athletic training BOC exam, you’ll want to pay attention.

It’s important that you understand what material is tested on the BOC exam, and if you haven’t spent time reading and digesting the BOC exam outline, you’re going to be in trouble.

I totally understand that the BOC Content Outline is a bit vague, but it does give you some direction to at least begin to study some of these more difficult topics.

Now you may be asking yourself, “ Why do I need to bother with pharmacology? As an athletic trainer, I won’t prescribe medications.”

Two thoughts:

1. While you don’t prescribe the medications, you are typically the “boots on the ground” when it comes to their effects and side effects. You can provide valuable feedback about how a patient is responding to a certain medication. A great example would be Baclofen-you get to see and report its effects so that the physician can more accurately alter the dosage as needed. If you’re not paying attention to medications and their effects, you’re not seeing the whole picture.