Pharmacology Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Pharmacology - Assignment Example Potential issues in the system in which a mistake could be made includes staff not understanding the orders given. This could lead to patients being given the incorrect drugs, which could means disastrous effects to the health of the patient. This however can be prevented by an RN through double checking drugs that are of high alert through making independent calculations. Medications referred to as high-alert drugs are those that have a very high chance of causing disastrous effects on the patients when used in error. In addition, the RN could take their time off in between rechecking the calculations. This will give them time to relax and recheck the drugs when they are not fatigued to ensure they take the correct orders. There is a significant effect of food on drugs prescribed by health professionals to their patients. Food might have an effect on the extent and rate of absorption of the drugs particularly after oral administration (McLachlan & Ramzan, 2006). Being able to fully comprehend what kind of effect food has on different types of medicines helps health professionals be able to give patients the correct advice of whether to take the medicines with food or not. Generally, taking food together with medicine usually delays absorption of the drugs; nevertheless, the effect depends on the drug, the kind of food and its formulation. There are those drugs that come with strict guidelines of whether they should be taken with meals or not. Food especially that has high fat content usually slows down the emptying of the gastric, which might delay absorption of the drug. This means that if there is a delay of the drug going to the small intestine absorption into the systemic circulation becomes difficult. The effect food has is determined by the pharmacokinetic and physicochemical features of the drug (McLachlan & Ramzan, 2006). An example is the antiretroviral drug saquinavir, which is very poor in dissolving in water; therefore health professionals advice t heir patients to take it with food in order to allow enhancement of bile to dissolve it aiding absorption. Absorption of saquinavir works much better after having a heavy breakfast; taking it on an empty stomach could result to therapeutic failure. Food also has an effect of drug toxicity especially when they are mixed. For example, when it comes to blood pressure and MAO inhibitors drugs, taking them with chocolate or peanut butter could be disastrous (American heart organization, 2013). Other foods like grapefruit also interfere with certain prescription drugs and therefore should not be taken with drugs meant to lower blood pressure. This is because grapefruit juice can lead to an increase of the medicines in the body causing negative side effects. When it comes to timing of meals, there is also an effect especially when comes to foods containing dairy products. Dairy products contain calcium and minerals which when taken with some certain medicines reduce absorption into the blo od from the gut. Therefore, this can only be prevented by time spacing. Patients are advised to take dairy products an hour before or some two hours after taking the medication. Patient aged 42 years is suffering from high blood pressure and is put under blood pressure medication. The doctor has prescribed