Course Resources Archive

Students registered on the Certificate in Professional Studies in Non Medical Prescribing.

Students should be employed within a health setting and work within a capacity where they have demonstrated competent practice within health assessment and diagnostics and could incorporate a prescribing role.  They will require the support of a medical supervisor and their manager where appropriate

This module is designed for Health Practitioners who work with patients and clients undertaking drug therapy.  It will enable the Practitioner to develop an increased understanding and clinical knowledge of the pharmaco-dynamics and -kinetics of the medications prescribed within their working areas.

This module will cover the following topics:

• Clinical Pharmacology including the effects of co-morbidity;
• Pharmaco-dynamics, pharmaco-kinetics and pharmaco-therapeutics;
• Review of anatomy and physiology as applied to prescribing practice;
• Basic principles of drug action including adverse drug reactions (ADRs);
• Drug interactions and reactions;
• Patient/client concordance and drug response;
• Impact of physiological state on drug responses and safety;
• Prescribing for different client groups;
• Pharmaco-therapeutics related to controlled drugs;
• Numeracy and drug calculations;
• Prescribing within budgets and cost effectiveness issues;
• Drug trials and licensing procedures;
• Reporting of adverse incidents and patient safety issues;
• Influences on and the psychology of prescribing;
• Evidence- based practice and clinical governance in relation to non-medical prescribing.

A student passing this module should be able to:

1. Understand and critically apply knowledge of drug actions, interactions and reactions within their clinical practice;
2. Demonstrate a critical understanding of the development of new drugs and their introduction onto the prescribing market;
3. Critically appraise information sources/advice and decision support systems in prescribing practice;
4. Demonstrate a critical understanding of the variety of factors that will influence the prescribing decisions made within their area of clinical practice and their outcomes;
5. Critically explores the influences that can affect prescribing practice;
6. Demonstrate an ability to perform appropriate drug calculations;
7. Evaluate information sources relating to treatment options and make appropriate judgments in relation to individual patient/client need within their area of clinical practice.

The Library Catalogue contains full details of the current reading list for this module. Further details may also be found in the Module Guide.