EMR - Pharmacology

Legal stuff

Efficacy Factors

• Patient age

• Body mass

• Gender

• Environment

• Time of administration

• Pathological state (illness)

• Psychological factors (needles)

• Genetic factors

6 RIGHTS!

• Time - is it the right time to administer? have they already had some recently?

• Route - how should you be administering this med? Orally, inhalation, IM etc…

• Amount - How much are we giving? Check the medication concentration.

• Medication - Is this the right med for the situation? Check expiry

• Patient - do they meet the signs and symptoms for this med? do they need it? is it their prescription?

• Documentation - Completely document your actions and findings including time, route, dose, and effect

Assisting vs. Administering

• Assisting

  • Responder follows the pts specific directions to help with the med

  • Does not require special training

• Administering

  • responder actually introduces the drug into the pts body after deciding to give the medication'

  • requires special training or authorization from a physical who:

    • is allowed to administer medication

    • will provide medical direction

Elements of Pharmacokinetics

• Drug absorption:

  • the movement of drug molecules from the site of entry into general circulation

• Drug distribution:

  • the transport of a drug through the bloodstream to various tissues of the body and to its site of action; rate of distribution is affected by capillary permeability and cardiac output of regional blood flow

• Biotransformation:

  • the process by which a drug is chemically converted to a metabolite; liver is primary site

• Excretion:

  • the elimination of toxic or inactive metabolites from the body; organs of excretion include the kidneys, intestines, lungs, sweat glands, salivary glands, and mammary glands.

Nitrous Oxide (Entonox)

Nitroglycerin

Acetylsalicylic Acid (ASA) aspirin

MDIs (Salbutamol etc)

Naloxone (Narcan)

Glucose/Glucogel

Epinephrine