Course Resources Archive

This module is designed for Health Practitioners and others 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, -kinetics and therapeutics of the medications prescribed within their working areas.

All assessment is non-compensable and students will have to pass all elements in order to get a pass grade for the module.

Students will attend a combination of study days (which may be arranged in blocks) and complete on-line learning and distance learning material. Students will need to be proficient in using IT.

This module will examine:

• Clinical Pharmacology including the effects of co-morbidity
• Pharmaco-dynamics, pharmaco-kinetics and pharmaco-therapeutics
• Review of antatomy 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
• Pharmacology and 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

On successful completion of the module students will be able to:

• Demonstrate a critical understanding of drug actions, interactions and reactions and be able to analyse and apply this within the complexity of their clinical practice
• Critically analyse the processes involved in the development of a new drug and evaluate its implementation onto the prescribing market
• Critically appraise information sources/advice and decision support systems used to underpin prescribing practice within complex clinical situations
• Demonstrate a critical understanding of the variety of complex factors that will influence the prescribing decisions made within their area of clinical practice
• Demonstrate the ability to critically analyse the theoretical and practical factors which will influence and impact on prescribing practice within complex clinical situations
• Demonstrate an ability to perform appropriate, and sometimes complex, drug calculations accurately and safely

Staff/student contact: 7 days
Tutor directed study: 7 days
Student directed learning: 14 days (to include distance learning)
Total study time – 200 hours

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