Health Promotion Assignment in Pharmacology

Wednesday, 24 July 2013

Patricia Keresztes, PhD, RN, CCRN
Nursing, Saint Mary's College, Notre Dame, IN

Learning Objective 1: 1. Enhance a pharmacology course with a health promotion activity.

Learning Objective 2: 2. Identify the parts of a medication teaching plan utilized in a pharmacology course.

Purpose: The purpose of this pharmamcology course project was to have students incorporate a medication teaching plan into their clinical.

Methods: The education of patients is a significant means to enhance their health promotion specifically in the area of medication management. An activity I designed for students to complete is the Medication Teaching Plan. This teaching plan is divided into 4 sections. The first section has the student identify the past medical history and reason for the patient’s current admission into the hospital. Section two has the student assess the patient’s need for education on medications and factors that may impair their adherence. For instance, this includes identifying problems with sensory or psychomotor skills, reading ability, cultural considerations and patient’s current understanding of medications. Section three identifies all the medications the patient is currently prescribed. Lastly, the student chooses two of the patient’s current medications and develops a teaching plan. This plan includes what they will teach the patient, the rationale for why this is important and an evaluation of the patient’s level of understanding.

Results: The results of the project have been positive.  One student educated her patient diagnosed with COPD on the use of inhalers. The student was also able to incorporate teaching on smoking cessation. Another student was able to teach a patient with a recent cerebrovasuclar accidnet with aphasia and her husband on the discharge medications. The patient was able to use hand signals to demonstrate understanding of the instructions. The husband was able to verbalize instructions as well.

Conclusion: This activity helps students understand the importance of educating patients in the area of health promotion and maintenance through the use of the Medication Teaching Plan. i will continue to utilize this project in my Pharmamcology course.