Pharmacology for Nurses

In most cases, a licensed nurse is not entitled to prescribe medication. Nurses may treat patients and carry out some medical procedures under the assistance or guidance of a doctor and also give drug dosages prescribed by doctors. Pharmacology courses gives the nurses additional information and training on dosing and drugs. The courses could be unavailable for nurses.

A course in nursing pharmacology gives a nurse an additional training in the area of pharmacology. The courses are called pharmacology for nurses or basic pharmacology. Depending on the desire, the training courses can be undertaken while you study for a nursing degree, be it a bachelor's or an associate's degree.

For additional training, they can be undertaken separately especially for nurses who intend to advance career wise. To be taken separately, the courses are offered to nurses who are already registered and licensed and have already graduated from a nursing school and want to use the learnt information to refresh their minds and be up to date with the current development in the field.

Courses for pharmacology may be taken online or in person. In return one is offered a certification on completion of the course or one is provided with a proof of attendance and successful completion. When undertaken as part of nursing school education, you must pass the course for you to graduate.

Information taught as pharmacology for nurses is not as deep as the one for pharmacists or doctors since nurses primarily focus on administering drugs, not determining the drugs a patient should take. Therefore nurses need to have an understanding on pharmacology and the impact of drugs in their various forms on patient's bodies. Many hospitals look for nurses with a pharmacology training or degree for hire. Hence nurses will advance quickly career wise if they attend training courses and obtain education in this field.

It is the duty of the nurses to keep track of the administered drugs. The tasks need to be done with expertise because a small mistake can be detrimental to victims. Therefore nurses must have solid understanding on drugs so that the nurse can perform the job proficiently.

Through pharmacology classes, nurses will understand how drugs act in a human system and on how medication is classified. Many subjects are touched in these training including different physiological systems and the effect of drugs on them. In addition, there is an emphasis on terminology and vocabulary of medications.

Pharmacology for nurses entails a lot of information being absorbed. A nurse with this course is able to understand the internal and external effect of medications and can recognize symptoms of adverse effects or an overdose. During training, students are expected to adhere to standards regarding attendance and grades strictly as outlined in the syllabus.

BLS confirms that a registered nurse who has a bachelor's degree or higher are expected to have a better job prospect unlike those without. Again, according to BLS, employment for registered nurses is expected to grow by 22% by 2018.

Find out more about how to master pharmacology for nurses and if you liked it then learn the best way to understand pharmacology courses.