Pharm Assignment

Nurses are often engaged in educating or informing clients/families/groups/communities about various over the counter and prescribed medications, including how they work, dosing, safety considerations and potential adverse effects and/or drug interactions. To do this effectively, nurses need to understand the difference between a generic and brand name drug, the mechanism of action of various medications in the body, key pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic properties of prescribed and over the counter (OTC) medications, lifespan considerations, as well as potential adverse effects and drug interactions. Students will be assigned to review a commonly used OTC medication to research. Students will research the following information:

a) The generic and brand name of the medication; including active ingredients, dosing information for children, adults and/or seniors (focus on one population) and cost of the medication.

b) Indications for the medication using plain language to describe how the medication works in the body

c) Key pharmacokinetic properties of the medication in terms of routes, dosing, absorption, distribution, metabolism, and elimination and how lifespan considerations (e.g., pediatrics, adult, gender, ethnicity, and seniors) influence these properties. Focus on one population- pediatrics, adult, or the older adult.

d) Key pharmacodynamic properties of the medication.

e) Three key adverse effects of the medication and two pharmaceutical and one non-pharmaceutical (complementary/natural product) potential drug interactions.

f) Two important teaching priorities regarding this medication for patients.

After you research the information, you will need to categorize the information into the key headings listed. These are bolded above.

Students will then develop an educational fact sheet for the general public written at a reading level no higher than grade 8. This assignment will require you to take large amounts of information and then prioritize and edit it down to what is essential to communicate (i.e., key points), using one page/side of a piece of paper in word text doc or brochure style. Students may choose to use template platforms such as Canva, Adobe Express, or Venngage. The fact sheet should be presented in such a way that non-clinical people would understand. There are links to two readability calculators posted to the Moodle page, and you can use this function in WORD as well. This informative page should be attractive with use of pictures yet easy to read.

References in APA format to be on the backside (second side of the paper), and you must use at least (1) current peer-reviewed reference. Websites such as WebMD, Healthline, DrugsRx, and the Mayo Clinic, for example, are not to be used as they are not credible sources for academic assignments.

Include the title of the fact sheet, your name, student ID, the date, and course number in the header and submit it to Moodle. Grading for this assignment is based on the comprehensiveness of the investigation, adhering to the description of the assignment, and writing at a grade 8 or less reading level. Points are deducted for late submissions. This assignment takes more time than you would think, so it is advised that you start well before the due date.