Pharmacology for Health Workers

Today, the practitoner is a pivotal member of the healthcare team with increasing responsibility and is expected to exercise judgement in the management of the patient’s drug therapy. To do this effectively requires an understanding of drug action and the ability to detect and evaluate both beneficial and adverse responses to drugs.

The Learning Outcomes for this course are:

Session One is an introductory session that deals with pharmacology and healthcare practice. We introduce the language of pharmacology by looking at the meaning of some of the terms in pharmacology, how drugs are supplied to the public and the law as it relates to nurses, healthcare practitioners and prescribing. The idea of a drug being formulated into a medicine and some of the reasons why this is necessary are explained. The session emphasises the importance of the absorption, distribution, metabolism and elimination of drugs from the body in determining the response to drugs, and takes a look at some of the factors that influence the way in which the patient responds to medicine.

Session Two deals with the principles of the administration of drugs. We look at the different routes used and the advantages and disadvantages for each. The session also introduces the importance of nonpharmacological factors in the response to a medicine. Finally, the idea of drug interactions is introduced.

In Session Three we deal with the factors that influence how the drug moves round the body, from its site of administration until it is finally eliminated.

Session Four introduces the concept of chemical messengers and cell receptors for these messengers. You will learn how important our knowledge of receptors is in the development of new drugs and the targeting of drugs for specific diseases.