Pharmacology education in nursing: what should be taught and how? - from Western to Chinese medicine

Abstract

Doctors give prescriptions after considering the medical conditions of patients. Pharmacists check the prescription and give information about the effects of the drugs to the patients, including their side effects. Nurses observe patients to determine the effects and side effects of the administered drugs, and then report these to doctors. Each specialist plays a role, allowing medication to be completed. However, in order to fully attain the effects of a drug, we need to consider the method of its administration. For example, it is difficult to attain the effects of laxatives for a person who eats irregularly; however, they are uniformly administered. Pharmacology education in nursing focuses on the mechanism of drugs and the way of maintaining their therapeutic effects and safeness, based on the viewpoint of "curing". Furthermore, nursing science focuses on the differences in efficacy depending on the characteristics of a patient, and also on the side effects of drugs, based on the viewpoint of "caring". However, education where care and cure are integrated needs to be provided, so that nurses can acquire applied skills to consider individual patient's bodies, lives, and psychological situations comprehensively, and then suggest the optimal method of administration. Also, there is Eastern medicine as well as Western medicine. Administration of Chinese medicine should be related to the patient's lifestyle. Nurses have to learn how each medicine is related to the patient's lifestyle, and what aspects in the patient they have to focus on.