Pharmacology - Introduction

In today's medical environment, the nurse is a pivotal member of the healthcare team with increasing responsibility, this includes exercising judgement in the management of the patient's drug therapy.

To do this effectively requires an understanding of drug action and the ability to detect and evaluate both beneficial and adverse responses to drugs. The greater your knowledge of how drugs act, and how they are used in clinical practice, the more you will be able to anticipate drug responses in your patients.

This will make you more effective in counselling your patients on their drug therapy, and in optimising their drug administration for maximum benefit. In this course you will explore the importance of pharmacology to nursing practice. The basic language of pharmacology is introduced and the terms "pharmacodynamics" and "pharmacokinetics" will be explored.

Syllabus

1: The Application of Pharmacology to Nursing

• The importance of pharmacology
• Legislation and professional guidelines
• The language of pharmacology
• Desirable properties of drugs used to treat human illness
• The formulation of drugs as medicines
• Pharmacodynamics and pharmacokinetics

2: The Administration, Absorption, Distribution and Elimination of Drugs

• Routes for administering drugs
• Key physiological factors that influence drug response
• The effect of drug interactions on patient response

3: Pharmacokinetics and Drug Action

• Pharmacokinetics
• Factors influencing drug bioavailability
• Drug distribution
• The principles of drug metabolism
• The elimination of drugs and their metabolites
• Measuring the distribution of drugs in the body

4: How Drugs Act

• Mechanisms for drug action
• Chemical messengers as a method of cell communication
• Revision of chemical transmission in the autonomic nervous system
• Classifying receptors

On completion of your course, you will receive the dual award:

Award 1 is issued by Stonebridge Associated Colleges: Pharmacology - Introduction Diploma

Award 2 is issued by our Awarding Body: Level 2 Pharmacology - Introduction Award

At the end of this course successful learners will also receive a Level 2 NCFE Award Certificate of Achievement. Our course has been accredited under our NCFE IIQ Licence and the course measurable learning outcomes have been benchmarked at Level 2 (using Ofqual's Qualification and Credit Framework (QCF) level descriptors) to allow you to consider the depth of study, difficulty, and level of achievement involved.

There is no experience or previous qualifications required for enrolment on this course. It is available to all students, of all academic backgrounds.