Authors

  1. Basler, Jennifer

Article Content

Nursing students struggle with understanding the nurse's role in applying the concepts of pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics in the pharmacology course. To address this, a 4-part project was developed. Week 1, the students are assigned a 6-medication profile. They develop a schedule of when and how to take the medications based on pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics while also considering meals and other drug interactions. The students submit the schedule for feedback. Week 2, students receive "medications" (in the form of candy) and take the candy following the schedule they set for 3 days. Students document missed doses, struggles they faced with taking multiple medications, and what it felt like to juggle a new medication regimen. Week 3, students research the medication profile's monthly cost and consider possible cost savings options without insurance. They submit these findings along with a reflection focused on their thoughts of how cost may impact patient compliance. Week 4, students develop a teaching plan for patients based on the medication profile and their experiences during the previous weeks of the project. Students share their teaching plan in the discussion area of the digital learning platform and are asked to comment on 2 other teaching plans. Upon survey, 76 of the 80 students ranked the project as valuable or extremely valuable. Other student comments included, "I have a better idea about the nurse's role and why pharmacology is important," "Trying to juggle taking 6 meds for 3 days was hard," and "I will not think negatively about a patient who is having trouble with their medication schedule. I could barely do it for 3 days and I wasn't sick." The feedback supports using this project to assist nursing students in making connections between theory and practice.