Pharmacology Basics Flashcards
What are the six rules before administering medication that must be present?
- Patient name
- Date of order
- Drug(s) need to be named
- Dosage amount and frequency
- Root of administration
- Signature from prescriber
What part of the nursing process do the ten rights fall under?
Implementation
Describe the difference between critical thinking and critical reasoning
Thinking - providing best possible patient care using best practice informed by evidence
Reasoning - Critical thinking leads to critical reasoning. Analyzing and understanding patient issues, making timely and effective patient-centred decisions, and it is holistic
List the 10 rights of drug administration
- Drug
- Dose
- Time
- Route
- Patient
- Reason
- Documentation
- Evaluation/assessment
- Education
- To refuse
What is the magic window for a time critical medication? What constitutes a time critical medication? What happens if it is not given in this window?
30 minutes either way
q4h or more frequent
When we pass this, the patient will not have the therapeutic response to the medication as needed (i.e., can develop antibiotic resistance)
What is the non-critical magic window?
1 hour either way
Define pharmaceutics
Study of how various dosage forms influence the way in which a drug affects the body
i.e., pill, tablet, liquid, controlled release, sustained release, crushable
Define pharmacokinetics
Study of what the body does to the drug (absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion)
Define absorption
the drug moves from its site of administration into the blood stream
Define distribution
transport of the blood by the blood stream to the site of action
Would dosage of an oral medication or IV medication be higher? Why?
Oral because they work through the liver and some may be lost/excreted
Define metabolism
medication is broken down into its active components
Define excretion. What organs excrete medications?
ensure that the kidneys are excreting what they should be to ensure the patient is not going into toxicity
Excreted through the kidneys, skin, lungs, and GI tract/colon
Define pharmacodynamics
Relationship between drug concentrations and pharmacological response (mechanism of action) - how does the drug work?
Define pharmacotherapeutics
Clinical use of drugs to prevent or treat (acute, maintenance, supplemental, palliative, supportive, prophylactic & empirical)
Match the following medications to the purpose
Supportive, Acute, Prophylactic/empirical, Supplemental, Maintenance, Palliative
Insulin, Electrolytes, BP medications, Vaccines, Analagesics, Vasopressors
Acute - Vasopressors
Maintenance - BP medications
Supplemental - Insulin
Palliative - Analgesics
Supportive - Electrolytes
Prophylactic/empirical - Vaccines
Define the difference between an adverse event and reaction
Event - any undesirable occurrence involving medications
Reaction - anaphylaxis or hypersensitivity to a drug administered
Are adverse events or reactions more common?
Events
What is an idiosyncratic reaction?
Rare, not understood completely, occur unexpectedly, evidence suggests a genetic component
What is teratogenic reaction?
negatively impacts the developing fetus (i.e., thalidomide)
What is carcinogenic reaction?
medications that can cause cancer (i.e., immunotherapy or hormone therapy can cause structural differences to DNA)
Describe phase one of new drug development. How many people are involved?
trial in a clinical setting, small numbers of individuals (<100), lasts a couple of days to a couple weeks, and they are healthy individuals
What phase of a new drug trial is pharmacokinetics being tracked?
Phase one
Describe phase two of new drug development. How many people are involved?
100-300 individuals who have the disease, clinical trial, adverse reaction and events are monitored
