Pharmacological Treatments

Paper details:

Create a 10–12-slide PowerPoint presentation to identify medications associated with Type II Diabetes Mellitus, explain the actions and side effects of the medications, and discuss any controversies related to the medications. Explain a treatment regime, including pharmacology, for the disease or health condition you selected, along with how the treatment regime may affect a client’s lifestyle.
By successfully completing this assessment, you will demonstrate your proficiency in the following course competencies and assessment criteria:
o Competency 1: Apply practice guidelines and standards of evidence-based practice related to pharmacology for safe and effective nursing practice.
 Identify the pharmacological agents most often used in the treatment of a disease or health condition.
 Describe the treatment regime, including pharmacology, most often prescribed for a disease or health condition.
 Explain the controversies related to a pharmacological agent.
o Competency 2: Explain the relationship between quality patient outcomes, patient safety, and the appropriate use of pharmacology and psychopharmacology.
 Explain the types of actions, side effects, indications, and contraindications that may be expected from a pharmacological treatment.
 Describe how a treatment regime, including pharmacology, may impact a client’s lifestyle.
 Describe how to monitor a client following a prescribed treatment regime, including pharmacology, in order to obtain a quality patient outcome.
o Competency 4: Communicate in a manner that is scholarly, professional, and consistent with expectations of a nursing professional.
 Write content clearly and logically with correct use of grammar, punctuation, and mechanics.
 Correctly format citations and references using current APA style.

Context
By having a thorough understanding of pharmacology, nurses can eliminate possible medication errors in their nursing practices. The basic principles of pharmacology include pharmacokinetics (what the body does to a drug) and pharmacodynamics (what a drug does to the body). Pharmacology plays a significant role in the nursing profession, so it is extremely important for nurses to understand the actions of the pharmacological agents they will administer to patients in order to intervene appropriately if necessary.
Another critical skill for a nurse is the ability to apply and evaluate evidence-based practices, principles, models, and pharmacological guidelines and protocols commonly used in nursing practice. Understanding how specific protocols and guidelines are developed will aid nurses in treating patients with a multitude of physiological and psychological conditions.
Nurses must be able to measure outcomes of pharmacological interventions when caring for patients. The effective use of evidence-based practice guidelines, models, and principles is one way that nurses can analyze quality outcomes for the pharmacological treatments used for patients.
Pharmacology includes different categories of major drugs used in the treatment of primary diseases. The same drug may be used to treat more than one disease or condition, while two patients with the same disease may require different drug treatments. In addition, the professional nurse must be aware of what types of things can influence a patient’s response to a drug. Some things are obvious—other medications, for example—while some are less so. Things like age, weight, herbs—even foods people eat every day—can influence how a person responds to a particular drug. At times, even a strong cultural belief can influence how a drug will react. Nurses who administer drugs have a responsibility to assess patients for both the desired response, as well as for any unwanted and potentially harmful reactions that may occur.
Questions to Consider
To deepen your understanding, you are encouraged to consider the questions below and discuss them with a fellow learner, a work associate, an interested friend, or a member of your professional community.
o What constitutes a medication error? How can medication errors be prevented?
o How do you use evidence-based practice in your workplace?
Resources
Library Resources
The following e-books or articles are linked directly in this course:
o Ward-Abel, N., Vernon, K., & Warner, R. (2014). An exciting era of treatments for relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis. British Journal of Neuroscience Nursing, 10(1), 21–28.
o Cohen, M. R. (2015). Medication errors. Nursing, 45(3), 72.
o Hernandez, J., Goeckner, B., & Wanzer, L. (2011). Perioperative pharmacology: Pharmacotherapeutics, pharmacokinetics, and pharmacodynamics. AORN Journal, 93(2), 259–266; 267–269 (quiz).
o Cooper, G. A. A., Kronstrand, R., & Kintz, P. (2012). Society of Hair Testing guidelines for drug testing in hair. Forensic Science International (Online), 218(1), 20–24.
o Drach-Zahavy, A., Somech, A., Admi, H., Peterfreund, H., Peker, H. & Priente, O. (2014). How do we learn from errors? A prospective study of the link between the ward’s learning practices and medication administration errors. International Journal of Nursing Studies, 51(3), 448–457.
o Eisenberg, S. (2012). NIOSH safe handling of hazardous drugs guidelines becomes state law. Journal of Infusion Nursing, 35(5), 316–319.
o Molloy, L., Field, J., Beckett, P., & Holmes, D. (2012). PRN psychotropic medication and acute mental health nursing: Reviewing the evidence. Journal of Psychosocial Nursing & Mental Health Services, 50(8), 12–15.
o Fleming, S., Brady, A., & Malone, A. (2014). An evaluation of the drug calculation skills of registered nurses. Nurse Education in Practice, 14(1), 55–61.
o Bench, S., Day, T., & Metcalfe, A. (2013). Randomised controlled trials: An introduction for nurse researchers. Nurse Researcher, 20(5), 38–44.
o Jenny, J. L., Jenny, C., Jayadevan, S., Jayakumary, M., Mohamed, A., Arun, S., & Mohamed, F. M. (2012). Nurses opinion on the attributes of polypharmacy in patient safety. Acta Medica Iranica, 50(7), 516–521.
o Patel, N. K., Wood, R. C., & Espino, D. V. (2012). Cultural considerations: Pharmacological and nonpharmacological means for improving blood pressure control among Hispanic patients. International Journal of Hypertension, 2012, 831016.
o Cleary-Holdforth, J., & Leufer, T. (2013). The strategic role of education in the prevention of medication errors in nursing: Part 2. Nurse Education in Practice, 13(3), 217–220.
Internet Resources
Access the following resources by clicking the links provided. Please note that URLs change frequently. Permissions for the following links have either been granted or deemed appropriate for educational use at the time of course publication.
o Institute for Safe Medication Practices. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://ismp.org/
o Healthy People 2020. (2015). Retrieved from http://www.healthypeople.gov/
o National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/
o Heart Failure Society of America. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.hfsa.org/
 You may wish to explore this Web site and review information related to heart failure classification.
o Montalvo, I. (2007). The National Database of Nursing Quality Indicators (NDNQI). OJIN: The Online Journal of Issues in Nursing, 12(3).
o Burchum, J., & Rosenthal, L. (2016). Lehen’s pharmacology for nursing care (9th ed.). St. Louis, MO: Elsevier Saunders.
 Chapters 1, 2, 4, 5, 43, 47, 48, 21, 23, 31, 32, 50, 57, 58, and 76.

• Assessment Instructions
Imagine your supervisor has asked you to conduct a lunch and learn session to educate your fellow nursing staff on pharmacological interventions for the treatment of Type II Diabetes Mellitus.
Requirements
Create a PowerPoint presentation you could use in your lunch and learn session, including the following:
o Identify the disease or health condition, along with the areas where nurses are likely to see it. (Do this in the agenda slide or next slide after the agenda.)
o Identify the three drugs used most often in the treatment of the disease or health condition.
o Explain the types of actions, side effects, indications, and contraindications that could be expected from the pharmacological treatment.
o Describe the treatment regime most often prescribed for the disease or health condition. This should include pharmacology but not be limited to pharmacology.
o Explain how the treatment regime (including pharmacology) may impact a client’s lifestyle. Consider things such as finances, ease or complexity of administration, instructions (frequency, duration), et cetera.
o Describe how a nurse should monitor a client being treated for the disease or health condition in order to obtain a quality patient outcome.
o Explain any controversies associated with the drugs used in the treatment. For example, is there a black box warning with any of the drugs?
Use the notes section of each slide to expand your points or draft your mock oral presentation (or both) and reference your resources. Use at least 3 peer-reviewed or professional resources to support your work in this assessment. Be sure your PowerPoint includes a title slide, a slide with your agenda or list of topics to be covered, and a reference slide. Follow current APA style and formatting guidelines for your citations and references.
Additional Requirements
o Number of slides: 10–12, not including the title and reference slides.
o Be creative. Consider your intended audience.