PHARMACOLOGY FOR NURSING CARE
COMPREHENSIVE EXAM QUESTIONS AND
SOLUTIONS STUDY GUIDE
●● Define pharmacodynamics.
Answer: The study of interactions between the chemical components of
living systems and foreign chemicals, including drugs.
●● What does pharmacokinetics study?
Answer: What the body does to a drug, including absorption,
distribution, metabolism, and excretion.
●● What is pharmacotherapeutics?
Answer: The study of the therapeutic uses and effects of drugs.
●● What federal agency regulates drug evaluation and distribution in the
U.S.?
Answer: The Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
●● What are the three names of a drug?
Answer: Chemical name, generic name, and trade/brand name.
, ●● What is the role of pharmacotherapeutics in nursing?
Answer: Involves the use of drugs to treat or prevent diseases,
emphasizing safe administration and patient education.
●● List the four ways drugs can work in the body.
Answer: 1. Replace or act as substitutes for missing chemicals. 2.
Increase or stimulate cellular activities. 3. Depress or slow cellular
activities. 4. Interfere with the functioning of foreign cells.
●● What is a competitive antagonist?
Answer: A drug that fills receptor sites so other chemicals cannot bind.
●● Define selective toxicity.
Answer: The ability of a drug to attack systems found in foreign cells
without affecting normal human cells.
●● What is absorption in pharmacokinetics?
Answer: The process of a drug from the time it is introduced to the body
until it reaches the circulating fluid and tissues.
●● What is the first pass effect?
Answer: A phenomenon where drugs given orally are carried directly to
the liver after absorption, potentially being inactivated by liver enzymes.
COMPREHENSIVE EXAM QUESTIONS AND
SOLUTIONS STUDY GUIDE
●● Define pharmacodynamics.
Answer: The study of interactions between the chemical components of
living systems and foreign chemicals, including drugs.
●● What does pharmacokinetics study?
Answer: What the body does to a drug, including absorption,
distribution, metabolism, and excretion.
●● What is pharmacotherapeutics?
Answer: The study of the therapeutic uses and effects of drugs.
●● What federal agency regulates drug evaluation and distribution in the
U.S.?
Answer: The Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
●● What are the three names of a drug?
Answer: Chemical name, generic name, and trade/brand name.
, ●● What is the role of pharmacotherapeutics in nursing?
Answer: Involves the use of drugs to treat or prevent diseases,
emphasizing safe administration and patient education.
●● List the four ways drugs can work in the body.
Answer: 1. Replace or act as substitutes for missing chemicals. 2.
Increase or stimulate cellular activities. 3. Depress or slow cellular
activities. 4. Interfere with the functioning of foreign cells.
●● What is a competitive antagonist?
Answer: A drug that fills receptor sites so other chemicals cannot bind.
●● Define selective toxicity.
Answer: The ability of a drug to attack systems found in foreign cells
without affecting normal human cells.
●● What is absorption in pharmacokinetics?
Answer: The process of a drug from the time it is introduced to the body
until it reaches the circulating fluid and tissues.
●● What is the first pass effect?
Answer: A phenomenon where drugs given orally are carried directly to
the liver after absorption, potentially being inactivated by liver enzymes.
