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Nov 25, 2024
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NUR 203 - Advanced Pharmacology and Pharmacotherapeutics Across the Lifespan
Semester Hours: 3
This course is designed to prepare the advanced practice nurse with a well-grounded understanding of basic pharmacologic principles, including, but not limited to, the cellular responses, pharmacokinetics, and pharmacodynamics of broad categories of pharmacologic agents. The advance practice nurse will develop a robust knowledge of the indications, contraindications, precautions, adverse effects, complications, doses, routes of administrations, and available formulations for the most commonly prescribed pharmacotherapeutics. The course is organized by system. The course implements an interprofessional learning environment using holistic, scientifically sound, and patient-centered care into the process of learning. It is designed to prepare nurse practitioner students with a comprehensive scientific foundation of the principles and concepts supporting the safe, effective, evidence-based prescription of pharmacotherapeutics. The course is one three-credit course extending across two semesters. In the first half of the course (Fall Semester), nurse practitioner students develop an understanding and appreciation of the pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics for broad overarching classes and subcategories of drugs. In particular, the course facilitates nurse practitioner student formation of conceptual frameworks linking drug classes and subcategories with corresponding mechanisms of action. The interrelationships between drug mechanisms of action, the effects of drugs on normal physiology and the pathophysiological processes of disease, are highlighted and emphasized. In the second half of the course (Spring Semester), nurse practitioner students integrate knowledge from semester one with newer concepts: how information derived from the history and physical examination impact drug selection decisions and overall formulation of the plan of care. Multiple innovative learning methodologies add depth and breadth to the learner’s experience and facilitate enhanced comprehension of pathophysiology, including, but are not limited to, PEARLS (patient-centered case-based explorations; a case-based/problem-based pedagogy), mini-case studies, simulations, large-group facilitated discussions, and cadaver-based anatomic learning that provide clinical applications that correlate clinically to pathophysiology principles and processes. PEARLS is the pedagogy specifically focused on the integration of the content of NUR 203: Advanced Pharmacology and Pharmacotherapeutics with NUR 201: Advanced Pathophysiology Across the Lifespan and NUR 202: Advanced Health Assessment* (together, these courses form the “3Ps”). In the Fall Semester, PEARLS cases align and link pharmacology concepts with those from NUR 201: Advanced Pathophysiology Across the Lifespan. In the Spring Semester, PEARLS cases align and link pharmacology concepts with those from NUR 202: Advanced Health Assessment. This innovative scaffolding and alignment of NUR 203 with the other components of the 3Ps using PEARLS allows nurse practitioner students to directly correlate the scientific basis for using pharmacotherapeutics (to restore homeostasis and health) as they consider the pathophysiologic processes causing disease. PEARLS also allows nurse practitioner students to directly apply such knowledge to formulate preventative and therapeutic management plans based on hypotheses and differential diagnoses derived from data obtained through an advanced patient assessment. PEARLS also provides a context to discuss the ethical, legal, psychosocial, health literacy, cultural literacy and socioeconomic issues relevant to the use of pharmacotherapeutics. Other weekly sessions throughout the semester focus specifically on pharmacology content and incorporate a diversity of pedagogies to accommodate a variety of adult learning preferences and to provide nurse practitioner students with adequate exploration of content depth and breadth. Formative and summative learner assessment will be conducted periodically and cumulatively throughout the course. The course also includes the required content for prescriptive writing which fulfills the criteria for nurse practitioners to prescribe in New York State.
Prerequisite(s)/Course Notes:
Prerequisite: NUR 201 . Corequisite: NUR 202 . For Graduate Nursing Majors only.
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