Basic Pharmacotherapeutic Concepts/Ethical and Legal Aspects of Prescribing
How do beta-blockers work? What exactly do antibiotics do to the bacteria they target? What effects does an anti-depressant have on blood flow?
Questions like these are related to the underlying pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamics processes of pharmacotherapeutics. As an advanced practice nurse, understanding these fundamental pharmacotherapeutic concepts is important to ensure that the prescription drugs you recommend for your patients will be safe and effective to treat and/or manage their symptoms. Additionally, as the advanced practice nurse, it is your responsibility to ensure that when prescribing prescription drugs, you adhere to the ethical and legal principles set forth for prescribing drugs as an added layer of protection and safety for the patients you will treat.
This week, you will analyze factors that may influence pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamics processes of a patient and assess the details of a personalized plan of care that you develop based on influencing factors and patient history. You will also evaluate and analyze ethical and legal implications and practices related to prescribing drugs, including disclosure and nondisclosure, and analyze the process of writing prescriptions to avoid medication errors.
Discussion: Pharmacokinetics and Pharmacodynamics
As an advanced practice nurse assisting physicians in the diagnosis and treatment of disorders, it is important to not only understand the impact of disorders on the body, but also the impact of drug treatments on the body. The relationships between drugs and the body can be described by pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics.
Pharmacokinetics describes what the body does to the drug through absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion, whereas pharmacodynamics describes what the drug does to the body.
When selecting drugs and determining dosages for patients, it is essential to consider individual patient factors that might impact the patient’s pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamics processes. These patient factors include genetics, gender, ethnicity, age, behavior (i.e., diet, nutrition, smoking, alcohol, illicit drug abuse), and/or pathophysiological changes due to disease.
For this Discussion, you reflect on a case from your past clinical experiences and consider how a patient’s pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamics processes may alter his or her response to a drug.
To Prepare
- Review the Resources for this module and consider the principles of pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics.
- Reflect on your experiences, observations, and/or clinical practices from the last 5 years and think about how pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamics factors altered his or her anticipated response to a drug.
- Consider factors that might have influenced the patient’s pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamics processes, such as genetics (including pharmacogenetics), gender, ethnicity, age, behavior, and/or possible pathophysiological changes due to disease.
- Think about a personalized plan of care based on these influencing factors and patient history in your case study.
For the discussion: Post a description of the patient case from your experiences, observations, and/or clinical practice from the last 5 years. Then, describe factors that might have influenced pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamics processes of the patient you identified. Finally, explain details of the personalized plan of care that you would develop based on influencing factors and patient history in your case. Be specific and provide examples.
These 5 videos are resources to be reviewed
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKV5iaUVBUI&t=16s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OBvNpnS0h4&t=664s%20
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xSqezCMHnw&t=1205s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtmV-yMDYPI&t=372s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Of1Aewx-zRM&t=24s
Sample Solution