Core Concepts in Pharmacology, 5th edition

Focuses on core information to concisely communicate the most important pharmacologic information.

• The body systems and disease approach organizes all relevant anatomy, physiology, pathology, and pharmacology in the same chapters where the corresponding drugs are discussed. This helps students easily locate all the information they need to know about a topic, learn more quickly, and gain a deeper understanding of the relationships between scientific concepts and real-world drug applications. 

• Numbered Core Concepts—stated at the beginning of each chapter, throughout the chapter, and repeated at the end—provide a road map of the anatomy, physiology, and pathology concepts students need to understand today’s key drug therapies.

• Concept Review Questions placed strategically throughout each chapter promote comprehension and retention, giving students timely feedback on whether they are grasping each key concept.

• Drug Snapshots provide an at-a-glance list of the drug classes and related prototype drugs covered in each chapter, giving students instant access to basic information about each class of drugs.

• REVISED! End-of-chapter NCLEX-PN®-style questions have been fully revised, serve as a post-test for the chapter, and help prepare students for the NCLEX-PN^®. Complete rationales and NCLEX-style metadata are provided in an appendix.

• Case Study Questions help the student apply pharmacology and nursing care to specific client scenarios.

• UPDATED! A robust Glossary provides updated definitions of all key terms.
  

Takes a prototype approach to drug therapy, covering the one or two most representative drugs in each classification.

• UPDATED! Drug coverage and prototypes have been updated or adjusted to reflect modern drug usage.

  • Prototype Drug boxes present detailed coverage of the most representative drugs in each class, giving students the insight they need to understand an entire category of drugs and avoiding overwhelming students with the sheer number of options available in each category. They also include both therapeutic and pharmacological drug classifications, as well as Black Box Warnings to alert students to extremely adverse reactions associated with the drug.

  • Drug tables provide the most important information for each drug in a user-friendly format. Drugs profiled within that chapter are also identified with a Prototype icon.

Highlights key information for safe, effective nursing care.

• NEW! A new chapter, "Preventing Medication Errors," recognizes the critical role of healthcare providers in contributing to safe medication practices.

• REVISED! The Nursing Process Focus charts have been completely revised to reflect current nursing practice.

  • Succinct and easy to read, these charts provide the most important nursing actions for the commonly prescribed drug classes.

  • Highly accessible information on assessment, diagnosis, planning, interventions, patient education, discharge planning, and evaluation, helps students quickly understand which nursing actions are most important in addressing each type of disease or complaint, and what to do at each step of the process.

• Patients Need to Know boxes cover essential drug information and at-home drug administration techniques, helping students teach patients and families how to succeed with the medication that has been prescribed for them.

• UPDATED! Safety Alert features highlight potential medication errors and The Joint Commission National Patient Safety Goals.

• NEW! Lifespan and Diversity margin features provide important pediatric, older adult, and specific disorder considerations for drug therapy, so students understand variations in nursing care and drug actions.

• CAM (Complementary and Alternative Medicine) Therapy boxes identify popular herbal or dietary supplements that may be considered along with conventional drugs, helping students respond to the growing number of patients who are interested in alternative medicine, without compromising the level of care they are providing.

• Fast Facts boxes offer a social and economic perspective that gives students broader insight into the patients and diseases they are encountering. This helps students appreciate their patients as “whole people” in the context of their lives and challenges.

• NEW! Drug Focus boxes cover how new emerging drugs work, how they can be used, and how they may be better than what was used in the past.

• A new chapter, "Preventing Medication Errors,"recognizes the critical role of healthcare providers in contributing to safe medication practices.

• REVISED! End-of-chapter NCLEX-PN®-style questions have been fully revised. Complete rationales and NCLEX tagging are provided in an appendix.

• UPDATED! Drug coverage and prototypes have been updated or adjusted to reflect modern drug usage.

  • Prototype Drug boxes present detailed coverage of the most representative drugs in each class, giving students the insight they need to understand an entire category of drugs and avoiding overwhelming students with the sheer number of options available in each category. They also include both therapeutic and pharmacological drug classifications, as well as Black Box Warnings to alert students to extremely adverse reactions associated with the drug.

  • Drug tables provide the most important information for each drug in a user-friendly format. Drugs profiled within that chapter are also identified with a Prototype icon.

• REVISED! The Nursing Process Focus charts have been completely revised to reflect current nursing practice.

  • Succinct and easy to read, these charts provide the most important nursing actions for the commonly prescribed drug classes.

  • Highly accessible information on assessment, diagnosis, planning, interventions, patient education, discharge planning, and evaluation, helps students quickly understand which nursing actions are most important in addressing each type of disease or complaint, and what to do at each step of the process.

• UPDATED! Safety Alert features highlight potential medication errors and The Joint Commission National Patient Safety Goals.

• New Drug Focus boxes cover how new emerging drugs work, how they can be used, and how they may be better than what was used in the past.

• UPDATED! A robust Glossary provides updated definitions of all key terms.