Nursing Pharmacology will help nurses add to their repertoire of skills as they acquire appropriate pharmacological knowledge. While there is an absolute need to ensure that much emphasis is placed on the principles of safe drug administration in the nursing curricula, there is also a need to ensure that students are equipped with the pharmacological foundations related to the bigger issues associated with medicines management. The Fundamentals of Adult Nursing Pharmacology provides the reader with an overview of the key issues that will enable them to begin to understand the complexities associated with pharmacology that they will face as well as the exciting challenges that are ahead of them.
Clause 18 of the NMC's (2018c) The Code of Profession Conduct requires all of those whose name appears on their professional register to ensure that if they advise people, prescribe, supply, dispense or administer medicines then they must do this within the limits of their training and competence. They must do this with respect to the law, guidance produced by the NMC and other relevant policies and regulations. In order to comply with the NMC's requirements and other guidance, the nurse must have an understanding of the fundamentals of pharmacology. Professional guidance has been co‐produced by the Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) and the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) (2019) and provides principles‐based guidance to ensure the safe administration of medicines and has also been endorsed by the Royal College of General Practitioners.
There are 18 chapters in your book: the early chapters provide a broader discussion of pharmacology including a general overview of medicines management, legal aspects, pharmacodynamics and pharmacokinetics. Information and discussion concerning the use of prescribing reference guides, the various medicinal formulations, and the importance of preventing, noticing and responding effectively to adverse drug reactions are provided. Analgesics and antibacterials are given individual chapters and the remaining chapters adopt a systems approach.
When you are looking at the table of contents of this text this it might make you feel a little swamped and you could be forgiven for thinking: how on earth am I going to remember, recall and apply all of this information? There are a number of features in the text that will help you with your learning.
Each chapter is fully referenced and evidence based; the chapters begin with an aim and learning outcomes, providing you with an overall flavour of chapter content. At the beginning and the end of each chapter are a range of learning features that test your knowledge including multiple choice questions. This approach has been adopted to enhance learning and recall.
In most chapters there are a number of boxed features that can assist the reader in applying this complex subject area to their practice. The Clinical Considerations boxes address clinical issues related to chapter content. The Skills in Practice feature offers a ‘how to do …’ component. The Episodes of Care feature uses a case study approach, linked to chapter content that can occur in any care setting. Some chapters feature a glossary of terms and a further reading list is provided at the end of every chapter to encourage you to delve deeper.
As a healthcare student, your learning is not about rote learning and being able to remember. It is more than this: it is about applying that learning to the various situations you will find yourself in, ensuring that the patient, the person you have been given the privilege to offer care and support to, is at the heart of all you do. The goal should be to take your learning further, to develop, to discover and be curious. In this text you will learn and develop your own strategies that will help guide you so as to shape the way you study and learn, changing the way you think as you become a life‐long learner with a myriad of transferable skills.
Life‐long learning means just that: the continual pursuit of more knowledge as you develop personally and professionally; learning does not stop once you have graduated and had your name entered on to the professional register. Information and the acquisition of information does not stand still, new information is always being generated and applied in the nursing and medical fields. In the area of pharmacology, there are always new drugs being discovered and developed.
References
1 Nursing and Midwifery Council (2018a). Future nurse: the standards of proficiency for registered nurses. www.nmc.org.uk/globalassets/sitedocuments/education‐standards/future‐nurse‐proficiencies.pdf (accessed September 2019).
2 Nursing and Midwifery Council (2018b). The standards of proficiency for nursing associates. www.nmc.org.uk/globalassets/sitedocuments/education‐standards/nursing‐associates‐proficiency‐standards.pdf (accessed September 2019).
3 Nursing and Midwifery Council (2018c). The Code. Professional standards of practice and behaviour for nurses, midwives and nursing associates. www.nmc.org.uk/globalassets/sitedocuments/nmc‐publications/nmc‐code.pdf (accessed September 2019).
4 Prydderch, S. (2019). Preparing pre‐registration nurses to be ‘prescriber ready’. Aspirational or achievable reality. Nurse Education Today. doi: 10.1016/j.nedt.2019.03.009.
5 Royal Pharmaceutical Society and the Royal College of Nursing (2019). Professional guidance on the administration of medicines in healthcare settings. https://www.rpharms.com/Portals/0/RPS%20document%20library/Open%20access/Professional%20standards/SSHM%20and%20Admin/Admin%20of%20Meds%20prof%20guidance.pdf?ver=2019‐01‐23‐145026‐567 (accessed September 2019).
Acknowledgements
Ian would like to thank his partner Jussi Lahtinen for his ongoing support and Mrs. Frances Cohen for her help and encouragement. Thanks also to Magenta Styles at Wiley for her inspiration.
Barry would like to thank Professor Ian Peate for his continued encouragement support and friendship helping me to grow as an academic, an editor, a writer and for always believing in me. I would also like to thank my partner Jose, my mum Tina, Dad Ray and Sisters Melanie and Sonia for being my family. I would like to thank all of the contributory writers who have written book chapters. Working and dedicating your own time to writing for publication is no easy task. I applaud your dedication and thank you on behalf on the readership. Finally, I would like to thank Wiley and the team working behind the scenes for their continuous support on all aspects of the publication process.
Prefixes and suffixes
Prefix: A prefix is positioned at the beginning of a word to modify or change its meaning. Pre means ‘before‘. Prefixes may also indicate a location, number or time.
Suffix: The ending part of a word that changes the meaning of the word.
| Prefix or suffix | Meaning | Example(s) |
| a‐, an‐ | not, without | analgesic, apathy |
| ab‐ | from; away from | abduction |
| abdomin(o)‐ | of or relating to the abdomen | abdomen |
|
acous(io)‐
|