Module 9 Medication Part A

Question 1

when is medication used?

Answer 1

in the prevention, diagnosis, relief, treatment, or cure of health alterations

Question 2

what is the nurse responsible for with medications?

Answer 2

• for evaluating the effects of the medications
• teaching patients about their medications and possible adverse drug events
• promoting adherence
• and evaluating the patient’s technique for medication delivery

Question 3

define drug

Answer 3

any chemical that can affect living processes

Question 4

define pharmacology

Answer 4

the study of drugs and their interactions with living system

Question 5

define clinical pharmacology

Answer 5

the study of drugs in humans

Question 6

define Therapeutics or pharmacothera-peutics

Answer 6

the use of drugs to diagnose, prevent or treat disease or to prevent pregnancy

Question 7

list the properties of an ideal drug

Answer 7

effectiveness: An effective drug is one that elicits the responses for which it is given
safety: A safe drug is defined as one that cannot produce harmful effects- even if administered in very high doses and for a very long time
selectivity: A selective drug is defined as one that elicits only the response for which it is given

Question 8

what are additional properties of an ideal drug?

Answer 8

• reversible action: important that effects can be reversible (general anesthetics would be useless if patients never woke up- or opposite, don’t want antibiotics to be reversible)
• predictability: helpful to know how each patient will respond
• ease of administration
• freedom from drug
  interactions: when a patient is taking two or more drugs, those drugs can interact
• low cost
• chemical stability: some drugs lose effectiveness during storage
• possession of a simple generic name

Question 9

whats the objective of drug therapy?

Answer 9

to provide maximum benefit with minimal harm

Question 10

how could we achieve the objective of drug therapy?

Answer 10

if drugs were ideal

Question 11

list factors that determine the intensity of drug responses

Answer 11

dosage, route, and timing are important determinants of drug responses

Question 12

what does pharmacokinetic processes determine?

Answer 12

how much of an administered dose gets to its sites of action

Question 13

what are the four major pharmacokinetic processes?

Answer 13

1. drug absorption
2. drug distribution
3. drug metabolism
4. drug excretion
   * how much of the drug gets to its site of action is based on the top 4*

Question 14

what determines the nature and intensity of a response once a drug has reached its sites of action?

Answer 14

pharmacodynamic processes

Question 15

what are some factors that affect how well someone will respond to a drug?

Answer 15

• drug interactions
• physiologic variables (age, weight, gender)
• pathologic variables
• individuals differ from one another and therefore no two patients will response identically to the same drug

Question 16

what are the 10 rights?

Answer 16

1. right drug
2. right patient
3. right dose
4. right route
5. right time
6. right assessment
7. right documentation
8. right evaluation
9. right to education
10. right to refusal

Question 17

what are the 7 aspects of drug therapy?

Answer 17

1. Preadministration assessment
2. Dosage and administration
3. Evaluating and promoting therapeutic effects
4. Minimizing adverse effects
5. Minimizing adverse interactions
6. Making “as needed” (PRN) decisions
7. Managing toxicity

Question 18

what are the 3 basic goals when assessing a patient for drug therapy?

Answer 18

1. collecting baseline data
2. Identifying high-risk patients
3. Assessing the patients capacity for self-care

Question 19

why do you need to collect baseline data?

Answer 19

• needed to evaluate both therapeutic and adverse drug responses
• without this data, we would have no way of determining the effectiveness of our drug

Question 20

why is it important to identify high-risk patients

Answer 20

• multiple factors can predispose an individual to adverse reactions from specific drugs
• when planning drug therapy, we must identify patients who are at high risk of reacting adversely

Question 21

how do we identify those high risk patients? what are the 3 parts?

Answer 21

we use three principal tools: the patient history, physical examination, and lab data

Question 22

what is pharmacokinetics?

Answer 22

the study of how mediations:

• enter the body
• are absorbed and distributed into the cells, tissues, and organs
• altar physiological functions
• exit the body

Question 23

define pharmocodynamics

Answer 23

impact of the drug on body
-Binding of the drug to its receptor
•Patient’s functional state
•Placebo effects