UNIVERSITY OF CEBU

BANILAD CAMPUS

GOV. M. CUENCO AVE, CEBU CITY

COLLEGE OF NURSING

NURSING PROCESS
IN PHARMACOLOGY
A SELF LEARNING MODULE 2

LEMUEL C. CANDELASA

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Introduction
Welcome! This Module 2 allows you to understand that
nurses are an integral part of the care of patients. Like every
other discipline, nurses use the nursing process as a guide to
clinical practice. In particular, it provides the basis for
systematic nursing practices and uses a problem-solving
Rationale
approach rather than an intuitive one. When properly
implemented, the nursing process also provides a way to
assess the effectiveness of the care provided.

In this module, you should do your best to understand the

concepts by spending at least three (3) hours in the nursing
process concepts and one and half (1 1/2) hour for answering
questions related to the module from the comfort of your home.
Don’t forget to read and understand the assessment tools. Do
not settle with low standards; instead, target the highest
Time Frame
standards in doing your assigned tasks. I know you can do it.
Just believe in yourself!
By the end of this module, you will be able to utilize
essential concepts of nursing pharmacology to enable safe and
appropriate use of medications.

Specifically, you should be able to:     

1. Explain the steps of the nursing process in relation to
pharmacology.      
Learning Compass
2. Discuss the concepts of medications such as safety and
rights
3. Explain common interventions in medication administration.
4. Enumerate the types of medication orders.
5. Discuss the rights of drug administration that ensure safe
medication practice.

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Table of Contents

Module 1: Nursing Process in Pharmacology

Lesson 1 Assessment Page 9

Lesson 2 Nursing Diagnosis Page 11

Lesson 3 Planning Page 13

Lesson 4 Implementation Page 15

Lesson 5 Evaluation Page 19

References Page 24

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How does this

Module work?

The learning module is divided into five components (Engage, Explore, Explain,
Elaborate, and Evaluate), each of which will assist you in achieving the desired
learning outcome/s of the course. Be familiar with the icons and terminologies
described below, and this will lead you through the contents of the Module."

This is where I'm going to give you an activity to

Engage
stimulate your thinking and help you gain access to
prior knowledge. I might ask questions to find out
what you already know about the concept to be
covered.

You’re going to explore your ideas and work with your

Explore classmates. You have time to think, plan, investigate,
and organize the information you collect.

This section gives you the opportunity to connect your

Explain previous experiences with current learning and to

make the main ideas of the subject being studied
conceptually meaningful.

You will apply or extend the concepts and

Elaborate experiences that have already been introduced to

new situations. So this is the part in which you apply
your knowledge to applications in the real world.

I will facilitate you in reviewing and assessing what

Evaluate you have learned and how you have learned it. You
will be given a summative assessment to demonstrate
what you know and can do.

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Engage
“Perform this pre-assessment. This activity will help you identify strengths and
weaknesses as well as target areas that need to be improved or moved forward to
the next module. Take the formative test at Moodle LMS. You may ask my
assistance if necessary"”

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Explore
"I appreciate the effort you have made in your previous work. Let us move this
phase, where you are going to share your ideas with your classmates through the
activity below. Good luck to you! "

A. Read the research manuscript: Contributing factors to medication errors as

perceived by nursing students in Iligan City, Philippines

Link: https://belitungraya.org/BRP/index.php/bnj/article/view/566/231

B. For this activity, you will work together as a group of approximately 10 students to
create a written output regarding the video , consisting of at least 450 words. This
assignment will require some additional outside research to complete and
coordination your efforts as a group. At a minimum, you must address the following
questions:
1. Explain the main point of the article.
2. How will you apply the insights you gained from this article? Connect it to the
concept of the nursing process in pharmacology.
3. Discuss the rights of medication.

Online Group Work Success Tips:

To increase your chances of being successful with this project, I advise that you do
the following:
1. Set up an initial meeting via Google+, Facebook , Whats-app chat to elect a
group leader and decide upon a topic. This initial meeting is important for
coordinating the work. Set a date and time for a follow-up meeting.
2. Hold a follow-up meeting to check individual and overall progress. Set a due
date for a rough draft.
3. Review rough draft, discuss and suggest changes or revisions.
4. Have everyone do a final review of the product for grammatical errors, meeting
the requirements of the assignment, etc. before submission. This should help
keep your group on the task to complete the project on time while ensuring
quality.

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Module 2

Nursing Process in
Pharmacology

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Explain
"Your previous experience helps you get an idea of the topic. You might ask yourself,
what do you need to know about that? To answer this, you need to read the text
carefully with curiosity, Further, you need to know also that the integration of the
nursing process in the administration  of medication  offers a systemic way to collect
and use information for planning and providing individualized patient care and to
evaluate the results."

Nursing Process

One of the most significant advances in nursing has been the development of the nursing
process. The nursing process guides nursing decisions about drug administration to ensure
the patient’s safety and to meet medical and legal standards. The five steps of the nursing
process are dynamic, flexible, and interrelated (Berry et al., 2016). They include:
Assessment
Nursing Diagnosis
Planning
Implementation
Evaluation

Source: (Clayton, 2016)

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Lesson 1

Assessment

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Explain
"Lets start reading on this Lesson 1, which is Assessment ."

Assessment

Assessment involves collecting

data that are used to identify
the patient’s actual and
potential health needs. You can
obtain data by taking a health
history, performing a physical
examination, and reviewing
pertinent laboratory and
diagnostic information. The
health history includes
documenting drugs and herbal
preparations that the patient is
taking as well as any allergies
(Berry et al., 2016).
Source:(Nalzaro, n.d.)

During the assessment, the nurse collects a comprehensive information base about the patient
from the physical examination, the nursing history, the medication history, and professional
observations. Formats commonly used for data collection, organization, and analysis are the
head-to-toe assessment, body systems assessment, and Gordon’s Functional Health Patterns
Model. The head-to-toe and body systems approaches focus on the patient’s physiology,
whereas the Gordon’s Functional Health Patterns Model includes sociocultural, psychological,
spiritual, and developmental factors that affect the individual’s needs. Box 4-2 shows Gordon’s
Functional Health Patterns Model (Clayton, 2016).

Source: (Clayton, 2016)

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Lesson 2

Nursing Diagnosis

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Explain
"At this part , you will read the Nursing Diagnosis topic."

Nursing Diagnosis

NANDA International defines the nursing diagnosis as a

“clinical judgment about individual, family, or community
responses to actual or potential health problems or life
processes.” It goes on to say that “Nursing diagnoses
provide the basis for the selection of nursing interventions
to achieve outcomes for which the nurse is accountable
(Berry et al., 2016).

Source: (Clayton, 2016)

Source: (Clayton, 2016)

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Lesson 3

Planning

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Explain
"I know you are great reader, just keep going..."

Planning

After you establish a nursing diagnosis, you’ll develop a written care plan. A
written care plan serves as a communication tool among health care team
members that helps ensure continuity of care. The plan consists of two
parts: patient outcomes, or expected outcomes, which describe behaviors
or results to be achieved within a specific time nursing interventions
needed to achieve those outcomes (Berry et al., 2016).

Source:(Nursing Diagnosis and Planning (The Nursing Process) Part 1, n.d.)

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Lesson 4

Implementation

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Explain
"The next lesson is Implementation.topic."

Implementation

The implementation phase is when you put your care plan into action.
Implementation encompasses all nursing interventions, including drug
therapy, that are directed toward meeting the patient’s health care needs.
While you coordinate implementation, you collaborate with the patient
and the patient’s family and consult with other caregivers. Implementation
can involve a multidisciplinary approach, depending on the needs of the
patient and his family (Berry et al., 2016)..

Drug Administration
A drug’s administration route influences the quantity given and the rate at
which the drug is absorbed and distributed. These variables affect the
drug’s action and the patient’s response.

Source: (Zerwekh, 2019)

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Explain
"I know you are great reader, just keep going..."

Medication Orders
Routine orders
PRN orders
One time orders
STAT orders

Routine Medication Orders

Detailed order for a medication given on a routine
or regularly scheduled basis such as every morning
at 10 AM

PRN medication (as needed) Orders

A medication which is ordered to be given “when
necessary” or “as needed” within a designated
number of hours

One Time Orders

Some medications to be given only once and are
ordered to be given at a specific time and then
discontinued.

STAT Orders
These medications need to be given immediately
or NOW.

Medication Safety
Remember the three checks
Checking the:
Name of the person
Strength and dosage
Frequency against the
Medical order
MAR and
Medication container.
Verify any medication order and make sure it’s
complete. The order should include the drug name,
dosage, frequency and route of administration.
Check the patient's medical record for an allergy or
contraindication to the prescribed medication. If an
allergy or contraindications exist, don't administer the
medication and notify the practitioner.
Prepare medications for one patient at a time.
Educate patients about their medications.

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Explain
"I know you are great reader, just keep going..."

Seven Rights
1. Right Individual.
Collecting medication for only one individual at a time.
If there is any doubt that you are giving a medication to the wrong person, don’t give
the medication until you are sure you are giving to the correct individual.
2. Right Medication.
This involves reading the med label on the bottle, including the brand name of the
medication and the generic name of the medication (if both are available).
Make use of the nursing supervisor so that you are not the only one questioning the
right medication.
3. Right Dose
Be aware of the strength of each medication you are giving.
Ask the pharmacist or the nursing supervisor any time your calculations indicate that
you need to give three or more pills of the same medication at the same time as this is
when medication errors are most likely to occur.
4. Right Time.
Some medications need to be given at the same time every day or at the same time
with relationship to the patient’s mealtime.
In general, you need to give the medication within one-half hour of when it is supposed
to be given (before or after the correct time).
5. Right Route.
This involves where and how the medication is given to the patient. The medication
may be given by rectum, through the skin, in the eyes, in the ears, into the lungs, or into
the vagina.
If the patient has an NG tube, make sure the medication fits down the tube and crush
it only if the pharmacist says it is okay to crush the medication.
6. Right documentation:
You need to do this documentation at the time it is being administered and not any
other time before or after that.
Use blue or black ink to make your notes and never use a pencil or white out if you
make an error.
7. Right Response.
Make sure you document the response the patient has to the medication.
For example, if the medication is a pain medication, you need to document the degree
to which the medication alleviated the pain.

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Lesson 5

Evaluation

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Explain
"Lets start reading on this  Lesson 5, which is Evaluation."

Evaluation

Evaluation, the final step of the nursing process, is crucial to determine whether, after
application of the nursing process, the client’s condition or well-being improves. The nurse
applies all that is known about a client and the client’s condition, as well as experience with
previous clients, to evaluate whether nursing care was effective. The nurse conducts evaluation
measures to determine if expected outcomes are met, not the nursing interventions.

The expected outcomes are the standards against which the nurse judges if goals have been
met and thus if care is successful. Providing health care in a timely, competent, and cost-
effective manner is complex and challenging. The evaluation process will determine the
effectiveness of care, make necessary modifications, and to continuously ensure favorable client
outcomes (Evaluation, n.d.)

Source:(Nursing Process to Drug Therapy, 2014)

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Elaborate
"Now let us apply what you have learned. Read and guidelines given below, and I
know you can do it! Good luck!"

Learning Activity No.2

Module 1: Nursing Process in Pharmacology

Output:
In this module 2, you are expected to answer the self-assessment activity, which demonstrates
how well you understand the lessons. For this assignment, you will create a Nursing Reflective
Journal.

Definition of Reflection Journal:

“Reflective journaling provides a channel of personal
communication that connects beliefs, feelings, and actions
which allows developing knowledge and understanding of
course content. It is often called as learning journal - a
steadily growing document wherein you will write to
record the progress of your learning.”

Framework for Nursing Reflective Journal

Source: (Gibbs Reflective Cycle, n.d.)

Materials:
Lecture Notes
Recorded lectures - E-learning materials
Video Clip

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Elaborate
"Now let us apply what you have learned. Read and guidelines given below, and I
know you can do it! Good luck!"

Instructions:
You must follow the standard guidelines to meet this requirement:

A. Watch the video: Error in Medication

Link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1g5qMnMye6lWUb7y75LEQJZJwhwFPizF8/view?
usp=sharing

B. Reflect on the nurse’s situation in the video. Write concisely, (not more than 450 words),
reflective and well-thought manner. Your reflections will be marked according to the rubric
provided below. To guide you with your reflections, address the following issues:

1. What patient rights are being observed by the nurse based on the provided scenario?
2. What are your thoughts on the scenario, given that you have a background in the nursing
process and pharmacology?
3. What is the central area of concern or focus on the situation?
4. What are your exciting discoveries you have made with the nurse’s situation? About
yourself?
5. If you faced the same scenario, what should you do differently?

Product Assessment Rubric for Refflection

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Evaluate
"Are you pleased with the outcome of the performance of your activity? So what do
you plan to enhance  your learning? To gauge your comprehension of this module,
take the summative test at Moodle LMS. You may ask my assistance if necessary"

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References

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End of Module 2

"Great! You just completed Module 2. If you need clarification on

certain aspects of the lesson, please feel free to contact me.

Now, if you are ready, please proceed to Module 3, which will

discuss the concept of drug calculations"

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