Medications Flashcards
What are the 5 parts to drug nomenclature?
- chemical name
- generic name
- official name
- pharmacopeia and national formulary (usually generic name)
- trade name
What are the 3 types of drug preparations?
Oral
Topical
Injectable
What is an elixir?
A medication in a clear liquid containing water, alcohol, sweeteners, and flavor.
What is a suspension?
a suspension contains finely divided, undissolved particles in a liquid medium.
What is a solution?
A drug dissolved in another substance.
What is a syrup?
A medication combined in a water and sugar solution.
How are drugs classified?
By the effect on the body system; chemical composition; clinical indication or therapeutic action.
What are the 2 primary classifications for drugs?
Pharmaceutical class: refers to the mechanism of action, physiologic effect, and chemical structure of the drug. What is it actually doing at the chemical level of your body. What is happening with cells, agonists, etc with the use of this drug.
Therapeutic class: refers to the clinic indication for the drug or therapeutic action. ex; analgesic (pain), antibiotic, or antihypertensive. what does the drug do? why is it given to people? Is it for pain, BP, etc.
Pharmacokinetics definition
Effect on the body from the drug
What are the 4 pharmacokinetics stages?
Absorption: From site of entry and how it gets to bloodstream
Distribution: Once it’s absorbed, how it is transported within the body.
Metabolism: How it changes from an active form of the drug and how it becomes the inactive form (how it is working)
Excretion: removal of the drug. ex; we use our lungs, feces, the skin, the liver, and kidneys to excrete things.
What are the routes of administration?
PO- slowest route, by mouth.
IV- fastest route because it goes directly into the bloodstream
What are some factors that affect absorption of medications?
- The route it is administered
- Lipid solubility
- pH
- Blood flow
- Local conditions- like if theirs a burn or scar where you administer it
Pharmacodynamics definition:
the process by which drugs alter cell physiology and affect the body
Side effects vs. Adverse drug effect
Side effects- a patient can live with, normal
adverse affects- unusual affects such as allergic reaction, toxic effect, drug intolerance, etc.
What are 3 factors that affect drug action?
- older individuals metabolize drugs differently
- kids mostly have medicine based on weight
- psychological factors: given a placebo but they think it’s a real drug and is helping them
What are the 3 Drug Dose and Serum Drug Levels?
- therapeutic range
- trough level
- half-life
What is the therapeutic range?
centration of drug in the blood serum that produces the desired effect without causing toxicity
What is the Trough and Peak level?
- See if it’s at the right level bc maybe we can give this patient a higher dose, or our dose is too high and we need to lower it
- Trough: the drug at its lowest concentration.
- Peak: the drug is at its highest concentration.
What is the half-life?
amount of time it takes for 50% of blood concentration of a drug to be eliminated from the body
Larger to smaller move decimal to the ___.
Smaller to larger move decimal to the ___.
Right
Left
What’re the 4 types of medication orders?
Standing order: carried out until cancelled by another order
PPN: as needed order
Single or one-time order: like a person going into the OR and getting an antibiotic before they go in.
Stat order: carried out immediately
What are the parts of a medication order?
Patients name Date and time Name of drug Dosage Route Frequency Signature of person writing the order
What is the Controlled Substances Required Information?
- Name of patient receiving narcotic
- Amount of narcotic used (like vicodin)
- Hour narcotic was given
- Name of nurse administering narcotic
- Name of physician prescribing narcotic
- Verify the count when giving narcotics - ex count how many are left when taking one out
What are the 3 checks of medication administration?
Checking the:
- Name of the person
- Strength and dosage
- Frequency
- check against the Medical order, MAR, and the Medication container.
