NURSING PHARMACOLOGY

Chapter 1: Introduction to Drugs Cognitive Level: Application Difficulty: Moderate Integrated Process: Nursing process 1.A nurse working in radiology administers iodine to a patient who is having a computerized axial tomography (CAT) scan. A nurse working on an oncology unit administers chemotherapy to patients who have cancer. At the Public Health Department, a nurse administers a measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine to a 14- month-old child as a routine immunization. Which branch of pharmacology best describes the actions of all three nurses? A) Pharmacoeconomics B) Pharmacotherapeutics C) Pharmacodynamics D) Pharmacokinetics Ans: B Response: Pharmacology is the study of the biologic effects of chemicals. Nurses are involved with clinical pharmacology or pharmacotherapeutics, which is a branch of pharmacology that deals with the uses of drugs to treat, prevent, and diagnose disease. The nurse working in radiology is administering a drug to help diagnose a disease. The nurse working on an oncology unit is administering a drug to help treat a disease. Pharmacoeconomics includes any costs involved in drug therapy. Pharmacodynamics involves how a drug affects the body, and pharmacokinetics is how the body acts on the drug. Cognitive Level: Comprehension Difficulty: Easy Integrated Process: Nursing process 2.A physician has ordered intramuscular injections of morphine, a narcotic, every 4 hours as needed for pain for a motor vehicle accident victim. The nurse is aware that there is a high abuse potential for this drug; therefore, morphine is categorized as a: A) Schedule I drug B) Schedule II drug C) Schedule III drug D) Schedule IV drug Ans: B Response: Narcotics such as morphine are considered schedule II drugs because of the high abuse potential with severe dependence liability. Schedule I drugs have high abuse potential and no accepted medical use. Schedule III drugs have a lesser abuse potential than schedule II drugs and an accepted medical use. Schedule IV drugs have low abuse potential and limited dependence liability. Cognitive Level: Comprehension Difficulty: Easy Integrated Process: Communication and documentation 3.A nurse working for a drug company is involved in phase III drug evaluation studies. Which of the following might the nurse be responsible for during this stage of drug development?