NUR 2474 Pharmacology for Professional Nursing

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Module 1 – 10 Key Concepts

NUR2474 Section TPP2 Pharmacology for Professional Nursing (11 Weeks) -

Residential and Online - 2021 Spring Quarter

Module 01 Key Concepts for this Module

Module 01 Key Concepts for this Module

• Module Introduction

In this module, some of the key principles of pharmacology will be introduced. To be

successful in today's healthcare environment, registered nurses must possess an

understanding of pharmacology and how to safely administer medications.

• Developing Deeper Knowledge of Medications

Most likely, you already have some firsthand experience with pharmacology in action

from the perspective of an end user. Whether it's ibuprofen for a headache, ranitidine for

heartburn, or cold medicine for a viral, upper-respiratory infection, most people have

experience using medications to help alleviate some type of ailment.

For the general public, it is sufficient to know that ibuprofen relieves headaches or

ranitidine relieves heartburn, but now that you are studying to be a nurse, you will need

to possess a much deeper understanding about the how medications work, and more

importantly, how to stay safe when administering them and caring for clients who are

taking them.

• Prototype Medications

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In this course, you will focus on learning about specific "prototype" medications. A

prototype medication is an individual medication that serves as a representative example

from within a specific class of drugs that share similar chemical structures and

mechanisms of action. Learning about specific prototype drugs helps you focus on an

entire class of medications rather than memorizing information about all the different

drugs within a specific class.

Note: For safety considerations, you should still look up individual medications prior to

administering them in a clinical setting, even if you are familiar with the prototype,

because there may be specific aspects that are unique to that drug.

Important Questions to Consider

As you begin to learn about these prototype drugs, always consider the following

questions:

1. Why is this drug useful as therapy for a specific condition?

2. How does this drug work to achieve its intended response?

3. What critical actions and assessments should be done before and after

administering this drug?

4. Which points must be highlighted when teaching clients about this drug?

• Building Your Pharmacology Vocabulary

There are a lot of terms and definitions to know in pharmacology. The items below are

important to know.

Drug (Also known as: Medication)

1. Full Definition: Any chemical that can affect living processes within the

human body (Burchum & Rosenthal, 2019).Note: The term drug and

medication can and will be used interchangeably throughout this course.

2. Simple Definition: Any substance that has a physiological effect on the

body

Pharmacology

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3. Full Definition: The study of drugs and their origin, nature, properties, and

effects on living organisms (Venes, 2013).

4. Simple Definition: The study of drugs and their effects on the body

Therapeutics (Also known as: Pharmacotherapeutics)

5. Full Definition: The use of drugs to diagnose, prevent, or treat

disease.Note: The phrase "therapeutic effect" refers to the drug's effect on

the body to diagnose, prevent, or treat disease (Burchum & Rosenthal,

2019).

6. Simple Definition: Beneficial or useful effects of a drug

Side effect

7. Full Definition: Responses in the body where the drug's effects are neither

needed nor wanted that cause problematic, but not harmful, symptoms

(Smith, 2016).

8. Simple Definition: Undesirable effects that are bothersome, but not

harmful to the client

Adverse effect

9. Full Definition: Responses in the body where the drug's effects are both

undesirable and harmful (Smith, 2016).

10. Simple Definition: Harmful undesirable effects

Pharmacokinetics

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11. Full Definition: The study of the metabolism and action of drugs with

particular emphasis on the time required for absorption, duration of action,

distribution in the body, and method of excretion (Venes, 2013).

12. Simple Definition: What the body does to drugs

Pharmacodynamics

13. Full Definition: The molecular interactions of a drug with specific

biological receptors on or in the body's cells, which lead to a desired

therapeutic response (Smith, 2016).

14. Simple Definition: What drugs do to the body

• References

Burchum, J., & Rosenthal, L. (2019). Lehne's pharmacology for nursing care (10th ed.). St.

Louis, MO: Elsevier.

Smith, B. T. (2016). Pharmacology for nurses. Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning.

Venes, D. (Ed.). (2013). Taber's cyclopedic medical dictionary (23rd ed.). Philadelphia, PA:

F. A. Davis Company.

NUR2474 Section TPP2 Pharmacology for Professional Nursing (11 Weeks) -

Residential and Online - 2021 Spring Quarter

Module 02 Key Concepts for this Module

Module 02 Key Concepts for this Module

• Module Introduction

In this module, you will begin to study neuropharmacologic drugs, or drugs that work on

the nervous system. The nervous system plays a key role in regulating many of our

body's essential processes. Accordingly, neuropharmacologic drugs make up a significant

percentage of drugs in use today. Because there are so many drugs in this category, the

material has been split over two modules.

• Basic Principles of Neuropharmacology

Physiology Review

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The focus of this class is pharmacology, not physiology, but in order to understand the

former, you must have a sound grasp of the latter. Almost all neuropharmacologic drugs

work by altering synaptic transmission. To better understand the pharmacology of these

drugs, let's review the physiology of synaptic transmission.

You may recall that is the biological process by which a neuron communicates with a

target cell across a synapse, as highlighted in the image below.

The end result of synaptic transmission is an alteration in behavior of the postsynaptic, or

target cell. If the target cell is another neuron, it may speed up or slow down the rate at

which it fires. If the target cell is a muscle, it may promote contraction or relaxation. If the

target cell is a gland, such as the adrenal gland, it may trigger the release of a hormone,

such as adrenaline, into the bloodstream. Synaptic transmission consists of five basic

steps:

1. Transmitter synthesis

2. Transmitter storage

3. Transmitter release

4. Binding of transmitter to its receptors

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