NURS12154: Pharmacology for Nursing Practice - Term 2 2017

Assessment 1

Assessment 1 is spread out over the 12 week unit. This means that each part of assessment 1 will be opened at different times throughout the unit. Please ensure you note the due dates for each part of this assessment piece as there is no option to complete the quizzes once they are closed (see ‘Essential Information’ below).

Assessment 1 consists of 4 parts:

Part 1. NPS Medicinewise Modules: consists of completion of 2 modules (5%). Due: Tues 1^st August 2017

· This part of the assessment is completed by accessing the NPS Medicinewise Learning website. The link to this is available under the ‘Assessment for this unit’ tab on the Moodle site. Once modules are completed, certificates need to be saved and then uploaded to the Moodle site – see Assessment tab left hand side of the Moodle page or the link under the ‘Assessment for this unit’ tab.

· The 2 modules to be completed are:

a) ‘Quality Use of Medicine for Health Professional Students’ (2.5% for uploading certificate confirming completion of module and submitted by due date). NB: Do not compete the case studies.

b) ‘Get it Right! Taking a Best Possible Medication History’ (2.5% for uploading certificate confirming completion of module and submitted by due date)

NB: please ensure the modules completed are 2017 and are the ones stated above. No other certificates will be accepted.

Part 2. Quiz 1 - 10 multiple choice questions - opened Friday 4^th August 2017 (wk 4). Closed Friday 11^th August 2017 (wk 5). (5%)

· Content of the unit modules 1, 3 & 4 are examined here.

Part 3. Quiz 2 - 10 multiple choice questions - opened Friday 1^st September 2017 (wk 7). Closed Friday 8^th September 2017 (wk 8). (5%)

· Content of the unit modules 5, 6 & 7 are examined here.

Part 4. Quiz 3 - 10 multiple choice questions - opened Friday 22^nd September 2017 (wk 10). Closed Friday 29^th September 2017 (wk 11). (5%)

· Content of the unit modules 8, 9, 10 & 11 are examined here.

Access to quizzes are available via the links under the ‘Assessment for this unit’ tab on the Moodle site and are titled Quiz 1, Quiz 2, and Quiz 3, completed on the Moodle site – no uploads required.

Essential Information

· Each online quiz is opened for 7 (seven) days (1 week – Friday to Friday) and a time limit of 1(one) hour to complete. There will be 2 (two) attempts available for each quiz.

· For online quizzes, there is no option to complete these past the closing date. Once the quiz is closed as per the stipulated date, no further access to quizzes is available. Each quiz must be completed within the stipulated time-frame unless an approved extension has been granted prior to the closing date. In the absence of an approved extension, there will be no opportunity to complete quizzes after the stipulated closing date and therefore no opportunity to apply a late penalty of 5% per day.

Part 1 must be submitted by uploading 2 certificates to the assessment site on the Moodle page.

Online quizzes are marked online.

Assignment 2 – Short Answer Topics

Due Date: Wednesday 23^rd August 2017 at 4pm

Weighting: 30%

Instructions:

· To complete this assessment, read the Coronial clinical case summary found on the Moodle site under Assessment tab: Assessment 2. All three (3) topics relate to this clinical case summary.

· Three (3) topics with questions are listed below and you are expected to attempt all three topics and questions.

· You are required to write 550 words (+/- 10%) to address and answer the questions contained in each topic.

· Each topic is an individual essay and needs to adhere to the stipulated word count. Therefore academic essay format is required for each topic which includes an introduction and conclusion for each topic you answer. As each topic is 550 words, a general rule of no more than 10% of the total word count should apply (50-60 words). For help with writing an academic essay please click the link ‘Writing an Academic Essay’ on the Moodle site (under the 'Assessment' tab) or contact the ALC (Academic Learning Centre) for assistance.

· APA referencing is required (please click this link to access the APA abridged guide available via this link or on the course Moodle site under the 'Assessment' tab). Please note that referencing is worth 15% of your overall mark for this assessment.

· In-text referencing is included in the word count.

· The study guide, course profile, and power-points supplied in the course Moodle site are NOT to be used as reference sources but are good resources to guide your answers. NB: journal articles less than 5 years old and textbooks less than 10 years old should only be used.

Topics

Topic 1: Medication Errors

Topic 2. Ethical Principles

‘Nurses are regularly confronted with ethical dilemmas in day to day practice and are regularly required to make ethical decisions, despite not always being aware of this fact (Oh & Gastmans, 2015)’. Ethical principles relate to medications just as it does to any other nursing practice.

• non-maleficence and
• beneficence

NB: It is expected that you write in third person (no ‘I’ or ‘we’ statements).

Topic 3. Legislation

Mr H is administered medication to control his pain. Many Laws and Acts govern medication and medication administration and therefore the Registered Nurse has a responsibility to be aware of those that are relevant to their practice.

a) What is the significance of drug legislation to nursing? Include a general description of the Australian schedules for medicines and poisons ie: S2, S3, S4 and S8. Provide a least one example of a medication for each of these schedules.

b) What is the legislative schedule of the medication given to Mr H to treat his pain?

c) What are the legal requirements in storage and administering of this scheduled medication to Mr H, which the nurse has a responsibility in abiding by?

NURS12154 Pharmacology for Nursing Practice: Assessment 2 Marking Criteria

Short Answer Topics

Student name: Student Number:

Assignment 3: Developing a Drug Protocol

Due Date: Tuesday 3^rd October, 2017 4pm

Weighting: 50%

A protocol defines a set of procedures or steps to be followed for the accomplishment of a given task. Your task for this assignment is to develop a drug protocol that covers all the requirements for you and other health personnel to follow in a hospital ward environment to ensure both safety and quality requirements for administering your chosen medication (as per the case studies below) are met.

General Information

You are working on a ward and are a newly registered nurse to this area. You are required to administer medication to one of the patients assigned to you (which represent one of the supplied case studies below). You are unsure of how to give the medication and seek out the unit’s medication protocol for help but are unable to find one. You approach the Nurse Unit Manager who suggests you develop a drug protocol for this medication to be utilised on the ward which includes consideration of the patient when discharged i.e advice and education.

Instructions:

1. You are to choose ONE of the following case studies below to write for your assignment.

2. The assignment consists of 2 parts (see point 3).

You are required to download the Template (which will form Part A of your assignment) supplied in a word document format which will allow you to directly add-in the information to each section. Any information supplied in italics in the template is to be deleted and replaced with your information. No section of this template is to be left blank. If no information is available then ‘N/A’ (indicating ‘not applicable’) is to be used.

Please do not submit or convert this template to a PDF. This completed document, along with your discussion (Part B) and references is to be submitted as one document to the assessment area of the Moodle site (see exemplar on the Moodle site).

3. The assignment has two parts.

Part A: Development of Drug Protocol (see exemplar on Moodle site)

Your task for this part of this assignment is to utilise the template supplied (which contains all the headings and additional information [in italics] guiding you as what is required) and develop a drug protocol that is specific medication related to the illness or disease stated in your chosen case study. You need to develop the protocol to communicate to other staff what this medication is and how to safety administer it.

You are to only choose 1 (ONE) case study from the list below.

This means that if you choose:

Case study 1: You need to develop a protocol for administering atorvastatin for treatment of hyperlipidaemia

Case study 2: You need to develop a protocol for administering trimethoprim for treatment of urinary tract infection (UTI)

Part B: Justification and Critical discussion (1200 words MAX)

You are required to justify and discuss this medication for treatment of the disease/illness in your chosen case study. Therefore this means if you choose Case Study 1, you need to justify or discuss why atorvastatin is drug of choice to be prescribed for treatment of hyperlipidaemia i.e. what is the mechanism of action, what guidelines exist, what evidence supports the use of this medication etc. that would, or would not, support administering this medication for the treatment of hyperlipidaemia. Suggested word length for this section – 500 to 600 words (max).

You are also required to critically discuss administering this medication to your patient incorporating the drug protocol in Part A. Basically your task here is to discuss what you need to consider in applying this drug protocol to fit your patient. The drug protocol is a generic protocol and contains general information and is not written to fit the case study you have chosen.

Each case study has questions to assist you with some ideas on how to address this section of the discussion. You may need to consider cultural and teaching aspects. The section of your drug protocol titled ‘Patient Advice & Education’ may guide your discussion for this section: e.g if your patient education and advice includes a pamphlet, then you discuss whether or not this pamphlet would be appropriate taking into account the patient’s culture or social background; is it educationally appropriate for the age of the patient; what additional considerations would you need to consider? In your discussion you may need to consider the laboratory testing and or other medications prescribed that may be supplied in the case study. These are only suggestions to be used as a guide. Suggested word length for this section – 500 to 600 words (max).

NB: This section – Part B, needs to adhere to an Academic essay format which includes an introduction and conclusion – the justification and critical discussion are not individual essays so only requires one introduction and one conclusion for this entire discussion.

References are required to be in APA format. For help with writing an academic essay please refer to the articles under the Assessment tab of the Moodle page or see the ALC (Academic Learning Centre) for assistance. Only one reference list is required for both the drug protocol and discussion and presented at the end of the assessment.

The study guide, course profile, and power-points supplied in the course Moodle site are NOT to be used as reference sources but are good resources to guide your answers. Journal articles less than 5 years old and textbooks less than 10 years old should only be used.

Total word count for Section B = 1000 – 1200 (max) words – including in-text referencing.

Case Studies

The following case studies are fiction in both name and any personal information. Any relevance to any person or place is merely co-incidental.

Your requirement for this assignment is to choose ONE of the case studies below as the focus for your written discussion.

Case study 1:

Lorna is a 56 year old indigenous woman who lives in Perth. She cares for her husband, who has vascular disease that resulted in below-the-knee amputation five years ago. She also periodically cares for her 12 year old granddaughter. Both her daughter and son live 300km north of Perth.

Lorna is not in good health. She has a 15 year history of type 2 diabetes mellitus. She knows that she should pay more attention to her diet, but she says she does not have the time. She rarely takes her blood sugar level (BSL). She is prescribed metformin 500 mg twice a day but often forgets to take them. Consequently her diabetes is not under control. Lorna has put on some weight over the past few years and is 85kgs and 140 cm in height.

She has come for a visit with her doctor at the clinic as she has a wound on her left foot. She tells the nurse that she knocked it whilst out walking some months ago and it won’t heal. The doctor reviews Lorna and thoroughly assesses her and advises she needs to be admitted to hospital for treatment of her wound infection.

On admission her BP is 180/90, afebrile, pulse 94beats/min and orders blood tests for cholesterol, HbA1c and renal function. On return of the test results she is told her serum cholesterol is 8.4mmol/L, triglycerides is more than 5.8mmol/L, and HbA1c is >8. He adds glibenclamide 5mg each morning and atorvastatin to control the high cholesterol.

Allergies: cephalexin – rash many years ago

Medications on Admission:

· metformin 500mg BD

· glibenclamide 5mg daily in the morning

· atorvastatin 40mg at night

· erythromycin 400 mg (oral) every 6 hours

After a short stay in hospital, Lorna is to be discharged home to continue on metformin, glibenclamide and atorvastatin.

Questions (to assist in answering the critical discussion section of Part B):

a) Does this protocol fit, or is it able to be utilised, for Lorna? If not discuss what the nursing responsibilities are here.

b) Discuss the importance of this medication in treatment of hyperlipidaemia. Are there any perceivable issues relevant to Lorna’s circumstances?

c) What potential problems exist for in adhering to her medication regime? What strategies could be suggested to assist?

d) What advice and education could be offered to ensure safety in administering when discharged? Consider cultural aspects

Case Study 2:

Mrs Gina Carbarello is an 85 year old lady who resides in the local nursing home. She has been admitted to the medical ward after presenting to the emergency department with new history of confusion believed to be related to a urinary tract infection (UTI). She had emigrated to Australia from Italy several years ago with her husband and 4 (four) children. Her husband died 2 (two) years go and as she could no longer care for herself, has been residing at the nursing home. She never learnt English as her family only spoke Italian at home. She only speaks a little English. Two of her children, Antonio and Emidio, live locally and are present when she is admitted to the ward. They speak for Mrs Carbarello in all communications with the staff and translate basic information for her. She has been admitted to the medical ward for treatment of her UTI and for observation due to her confusion. Past medical history includes hypertension.

The doctor has charted Mrs Carbarello medications below on admission to the medical ward.

Allergies: Nil known

Medications on admission:

· Trimethoprim oral 300 mg every 12 hours

· ramipril 5mg mane

· aspirin 150 mg mane

Observations and laboratory results on admission:

· HR: 75 beats/min; BP: 165/65; RR 18/min; Temp: 37.4

· Sodium (Na+) 145mmol/L (134-146); potassium (K+) 5mmol/L (3.5-5)

· CrCl: 30mL/min

· Urine sample sent to lab: result pending

After being in hospital for 4 days, Mrs Carbarello confusion has settled and is ready for discharge back to the nursing home shortly to continue her usual medications and the antibiotic till she is reviewed by her local medical practitioner.

Questions (to assist in answering the critical discussion section of Part B):

a) Does this protocol fit, or is it able to be utilised, for Mrs Carbarello? If not discuss what the nursing responsibilities are here.

b) Discuss the importance of this medication in treatment of UTI. Are there any perceivable issues relevant to Mrs Carbarello’s circumstances?

c) What potential problems exist for in adhering to her medication regime? What strategies could be suggested to assist?

d) What advice and education could be offered to ensure safety in administering when discharged? Consider cultural aspects

NURS12154 Pharmacology for Nursing Practice: Assessment 2 Marking Criteria

Short Answer Topics

Student name: Student Number: