Drug Administration and Dosage
Follow these guidelines when completing this assignment. Choose a pharmacological agent that has been on the market less than 5 years.
1. Research the literature and obtain two to three resources for current, evidence-based information related to the pharmacological agent.
2. Develop a teaching brochure and one page paper following these guidelines.
a. Brochure for nurses- Focus on nurses for literacy level
• Key/Relevant Drug Information
o Drug Class
o Mechanism of Action
o Drug Administration and Dosage
o Drug Interactions
o Lab effects/interference
o Special Consideration
• Patient Education Considerations (35 points/35%)
o Nursing Management
o Patient Education Considerations
o Patient Assessment
o Side Effects/Adverse Effects/Toxicities
o Special considerations- provide examples specific to client age needs- geriatric, pediatric and pregnant client
• Visual Effects/Creativity points
o Developed per the required standard
o Appropriate for the intended audience
o Flesch-Kincaid reading level seventh grade or lower
o Graphics enhance the purpose of the brochure
o Brochure is visually appealing
b. One Page Paper
• Describes intended use of brochure
• Describe how brochure information would be revised if intended brochure audience had a low health literacy level.
• Includes:
o Name
o Date
o Class
o Reference page
The hospital has the benefit of having a central location within the city and being easily accessed from all areas within the city limits. In addition, urgent care centers are located throughout the county making the hospital system accessible for those with emergent needs outside of the city limits. The hospital system has the benefit of having the greatest number of remote urgent care locations of the three hospital systems that are present in the area.
The comprehensive services offered have grown in scope over the past 3 years. The hospital system now has many specialty offices with a focus on cardiac, pulmonary, and oncology. There are also medical groups and diagnostic centers that operate under the hospital system umbrella located throughout the county in addition to the many urgent care centers.
B2: Weaknesses
The hospital has a persistently high turnover rate for clinical staff. The hospital has become increasingly reliant on the use of agencies to staff the clinical team and the hiring of newly graduated nurses. This creates strain on the longer-term staff that are then required to train new employees frequently and care for higher patient loads during periods of low staffing. There is also a high nurse to patient ratio in critical care areas. Due to high staff turnover, and a shortage of nurses that are available for hire, the critical care units have nurse to patient ratios that are often higher then one to three, creating an unsafe work environment. This has created poor word of mouth marketing both internally and externally in addition to decreased patient satisfaction scores. Lack of action on the part of the upper leadership team to focus on retention of current, experienced clinical staff has created crisis-staffing levels. The leadership of this organization needs to act urgently to increase staff retention and decrease turnover as the nursing shortage is expected to continue and worsen for some time. Marketline projects that by the year 2020 there will be 400,000 fewer nurses available across the U.S. (p.8)B3: Opportunities
Sample Solution
One pharmacological agent that has been on the market for less than 5 years is ibrutinib, a Bruton’s tyrosine kinase (BTK) inhibitor used to treat chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) and other B-cell malignancies. To obtain current, evidence-based information about this medication, I conducted a literature search using PubMed and Google Scholar databases. The following resources offer useful insight into the use of ibrutinib in clinical practice: The first resource is an article from the journal Blood which provides an overview of recent results from clinical trials investigating the efficacy of ibrutinib in various hematologic malignancies (O'Brien et al., 2018). Here it was found that ibrutinib had largely positive outcomes when compared to standard chemotherapy regimens as well as other targeted therapies such as rituximab. This indicates that ibrutinib could be an effective treatment option for patients with B-cell malignancies. The second resource is a review published in Cancer Treatment Reviews which covers safety and adverse effects associated with long-term use of ibrutinib (Hui et al., 2020). Here it was noted that while there are some important side effects including cytopenias and infections, overall long-term outcomes seem favorable when compared to other treatments for CLL. Additionally, potential strategies to reduce adverse events were discussed such as dose reduction or drug holidays when appropriate. Finally, an article from Future Oncology examines patient selection criteria regarding who would most benefit from receiving this treatment (Bosch et al., 2019). It was determined that certain factors such as age, comorbidities, hemoglobin levels and performance status should be taken into account when deciding whether or not a patient is suitable for receiving this medication due to its potentially serious side effects profile. Collectively these three resources provide valuable insight into the use of ibrutinib in treating B cell malignancies and helping clinicians make informed decisions based on up-to date research findings.