Final Review for NURS 6521

For all classes of medications, you will need to understand the mechanism of action,
side effects, appropriate use and contraindications for the classes of drugs and
individual drugs listed below. Also, know the key patient education points including
cautions, expected effects, and appropriate use (with food, empty stomach, etc.).

**THIS IS A STUDY MAP AND NOT CONCLUSIVE. YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR
ALL MATERIAL COVERED IN THE ASSOCIATED WEEK’S CONTENT**

Week 8: Pharmacology for Psychological Disorders

Review for the different classes: How they will affect the patient, side effects (major side
effects), when to use vs when not to use for the following:

• Antipsychotics
• Bipolar medications
• Sedatives
• Anxiety Medications
• Stimulants like: methylphenidate, dextroamphetamine, Adderall, etc.

Week 9: Women’s and Men’s Health

Women’s Health:

• Pregnancy: How does it affect pharmacokinetics, what to stay away from, how do
different trimesters affect the medications, medications to get pregnant,
medications to prevent pregnancy, what is the purpose of oxytocin, bethanechol,
magnesium sulfate in pregnancy and how the effects of these medications during
breast feedings?
• Oral contraceptives, benefits of using one vs another.
• Estrogen/Progesterone Therapy
• Bisphosphonates, alendronate, tests to diagnosis need for these.
• Terbutaline
• oxybutynin
• tolterodine
• radiotherapy

Men’s Health:

• Testosterone therapy, different types, when to use, when not use, when to stop
• Erectile dysfunction (ED), different medications, when to use one agent over
another, what not to mix with them.

• Antibiotics /Antifungals /Antivirals per chapter readings

Week 10: Infections and Hematologic Systems

Lots of information to review, want to focus on side effects, use, when to use, when not
to use, difference in treating ethnicities, allergies with antibiotics, which antibiotics to use
with different infections. Infections and treating a diabetic patient, what to watch for.
• Success or failure of a patient's chemotherapy / targeted therapies /
thrombophlebitis and thromboembolism
• epoetin alfa
• Casodex
• Dronabinol for cancer side effects
• permethrin
• oprelvekin
• silver sulfadiazine
• Neupogen
• quinine
• Infectious Disease:
• Narrow-spectrum antibiotic vs a broad-spectrum drug, what’s the difference?
• Each class of antibiotics and how they are used.
• Antibiotics vs antivirals vs antifungals
• What characteristic of the drug makes it a conjugated drug?
• Antibiotics and antivirals for STI treatment/prevention
• Resistant strains of microbes
• MTX
• Sulconazole
• MRSA
• Permethrin

Week 11: Pediatrics

• What is the effect on children who are prescribed adult medications?

• Teaching medication use to parents, kids, etc.
• Medication administration to an infant, children, and adolescents: best practices
and what not to do
• Best ways to reduce drug errors and how to prevent them
• What is the difference between adult and children dosing?

Terminology:

• Efficacy
• Pharmacokinetics
• Pharmacodynamics
• Drug tolerance
• Addiction
 • Dependence
• Withdrawal
• First pass effect
• Idiosyncratic response
• Medication Reconciliation

Other Topics:
• Which drug classes produce withdrawal if stopped abruptly? When is withdrawal
life threatening?
• How can adverse drug events be minimized?
• Why do drugs require clinical study and FDA approval?