Main description:

All UK nurses are required to become proficient in medicines management before registration. Safe administration of medicines is an essential skill for every nurse, and provides the foundation for nurse prescribing as a future area of practice. Now comprehensively updated and restructured in line with latest NMC Educational Standards for its Second Edition, this evidence-based resource: provides quick access to the knowledge you need to make clinical decisions and to safely deliver medication in partnership with patients. It is written and illustrated to be shared with patients when explaining and clarifying the nature of medications. It addresses the principles of pharmacology and the practical administration of medicines to adults, and it covers the most common drugs as examples of drugs in their classes, complementing the BNF. This new edition of Practical Medicines Management includes additional coverage of mental health, communicating with patients and achieving adherence, routes of administration, and responding to emergencies including sepsis. It is fully referenced to enable further learning. This resource is indispensable for the nursing student and for the practicing nurse in hospital and community, including nursing associates. Clinical educators, practice assessors and supervisors will also find this resource reinforces key messages about safe and confident practice.

Contents:

Introduction, 1 Definitions. 2 Pharmacodynamics and pharmacokinetics: Key principles of pharmacology, Pharmacodynamics, Pharmacokinetics. 3 Routes of administration. 4 Communication with the patient.
5 History-taking and assessment: History-taking and assessment of symptoms, Assessment for safe medicines management, Assessing and evaluating patient understanding, Assessment before and evaluation during antibiotic treatment. 6 Pain assessment and management: Pain assessment, Principles of effective pain management.
7 Mental health assessment. 8 Prescriptions and good practice: What to look for on a prescription, Prescribing competency, Record-keeping, Accountability, Capacity and consent. 9 Getting the most out of the BNF: Symbols used in the BNF, BNF printed version, BNF Online, Ways to use BNF information. 10 Maudsley Guidelines for psychotropic drugs. 11 Drug calculations: SI units, Calculations. 12 Adverse drug reactions and incident reporting:
Adverse drug reactions, Reporting adverse drug reactions. 13 Drug classes: Analgesics, Antimicrobials, Antidepressant and CNS drugs, Antidiabetic drugs, Anti-inflammatory drugs, Respiratory drugs, Skin preparations,
Cardiovascular drugs, Drugs used to treat blood disorders, Gastrointestinal and antiemetic drugs. 14 Emergencies:
Alcohol- and drug-related emergencies, Mental health emergencies, Anaphylaxis, Hypoglycaemia, Sepsis. 15 Index of drug names. Abbreviations