Assignment #1

Topics:
1. Introduction to Pharmacology
2. Introduction to Drug Action: The Interplay of Pharmacodynamics and Pharmacokinetics

References:
 Primary: Smith, B. Pacitti D. (2020) Pharmacology for Nurses. 2 nd Edition. Jones & Barlett
Learning LLC
 Others:
o Michelle Willihnganz, Samuel Gurevitz, Bruce Clayton - Clayton’s Basic Pharmacology for
Nurses-Mosby Elsevier (2019)

Submit via MS Teams. Deadline is 1 hour before the next meeting.

Questions:

1. What is pharmacology and what is its importance, especially to the nursing profession?
2. What are drug classifications and their importance? Give 2 examples and provide the usual
suffixes of corresponding drugs.
3. Each drug has 3 names. What are these? Differentiate the three. Provide an example and
indicate the chosen drug’s 3 names.
4. Differentiate prescription vs nonprescription (over-the-counter) drugs. Provide 2 examples for
each.
5. What are controlled substances and why are they controlled? What are the responsibilities of
nurses in relation to these substances?
6. Provide sources of drug information in the Philippines.
7. In terms of optimizing the administration of medications, what does nursing process mean?
Enumerate and briefly explain the 5 steps of nursing process
8. Why do medication errors occur? How often do these occur and how can these be prevented?
9. What happens after a drug is administered? What do “therapeutic response” and “site of action”
mean?
10. What is a drug? Is caffeine considered as a drug? What does active ingredient mean?
11. Discuss concisely how the liver is anatomical first stop for orally administered drugs. How do
active and inactive metabolites come about? What is the first-pass effect?
12. What is the optimal outcome a drug can produce? What are the alternative outcomes?
13. Explain therapeutic response
14. Briefly discuss side effects, give 3 drugs and their corresponding widely known or worst side
effect.
15. What does toxic mean? Explain the phrase “the dose makes the poison”.

Pharmacodynamics
16. Define and briefly discuss pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics.
17. Explain the mechanism of drug action. Give an example of a drug (aside from digoxin), its drug
action or target site, and drug effect.
18. What is a “drug target”? What is the most common target molecule? Can a drug-target NOT be a
molecule? If yes, what are the other instances where the mechanism of action of drugs do not
entail binding to receptors? Give an example.
 19. What is a receptor and what is its importance? What is the lock and key model? What is a
ligand? Can a drug serve as a ligand? What does affinity mean?
20. What is receptor occupancy theory?
21. What are the 3 general types of receptors?
22. What are the four different transmembrane receptors? How do these function? What is signal
transduction? What is second-messenger system?
23. Differentiate potency vs efficacy.
24. Define:
a. Minimum effective concentration
b. Minimum toxic concentration
c. Therapeutic index/window
d. Therapeutic drug monitoring
e. Duration of action
f. Onset of action
25. Define agonist and antagonist drugs.
26. Differentiate the types of antagonists

Pharmacokinetics
27. Explain absorption, distribution, metabolism, and elimination.
a. Define bioavailability, impact of first-pass effect on bioavailability
b. Explain a “bound” drug and a “free” drug. What is the difference? Which proteins
usually bind to drug molecules?