Week 1: Basic Pharmacotherapeutic Concepts/Ethical and Legal Aspects of Prescribing

Week 1: Basic Pharmacotherapeutic Concepts/Ethical and Legal Aspects of

Prescribing

How do beta-blockers work? What exactly do antibiotics do to the bacteria they
target? What effects does an anti-depressant have on blood flow?
Questions like these are related to the underlying pharmacokinetic and
pharmacodynamic processes of pharmacotherapeutics. As an advanced practice
nurse, understanding these fundamental pharmacotherapeutic concepts is important
to ensure that the prescription drugs you recommend for your patients will be safe
and effective to treat and/or manage their symptoms. Additionally, as the advanced
practice nurse, it is your responsibility to ensure that when prescribing prescription
drugs, you adhere to the ethical and legal principles set forth for prescribing drugs
as an added layer of protection and safety for the patients you will treat.
This week, you will analyze factors that may influence pharmacokinetic and
pharmacodynamics processes of a patient and assess the details of a personalized
plan of care that you develop based on influencing factors and patient history. You
will also evaluate and analyze ethical and legal implications and practices related
to prescribing drugs, including disclosure and nondisclosure, and analyze the
process of writing prescriptions to avoid medication errors.
Learning Objectives
Students will:
 Analyze factors that influence pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic processes in
patients
 Assess patient factors and history to develop personalized plans of care
 Evaluate ethical and legal implications related to prescribing drugs
 Analyze ethical and legal practices of prescribing drugs
 Analyze strategies to address disclosure and nondisclosure
 Justify advanced practice nurse strategies to guide prescription drug decision-
making
 Analyze the process of writing prescriptions to avoid medication errors
Discussion: Pharmacokinetics and Pharmacodynamics

As an advanced practice nurse assisting physicians in the diagnosis and treatment
of disorders, it is important to not only understand the impact of disorders on the
body, but also the impact of drug treatments on the body. The relationships
between drugs and the body can be described by pharmacokinetics and
pharmacodynamics.
Pharmacokinetics describes what the body does to the drug through absorption,
distribution, metabolism, and excretion, whereas pharmacodynamics describes
what the drug does to the body.

When selecting drugs and determining dosages for patients, it is essential to
consider individual patient factors that might impact the patient’s pharmacokinetic
and pharmacodynamic processes. These patient factors include genetics, gender,
ethnicity, age, behavior (i.e., diet, nutrition, smoking, alcohol, illicit drug abuse),
and/or pathophysiological changes due to disease.
For this Discussion, you reflect on a case from your past clinical experiences and
consider how a patient’s pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic processes may
alter his or her response to a drug.
To Prepare
 Review the Resources for this module and consider the principles of
pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics.
 Reflect on your experiences, observations, and/or clinical practices from the last 5
years and think about how pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic factors altered
his or her anticipated response to a drug.
 Consider factors that might have influenced the patient’s pharmacokinetic and
pharmacodynamic processes, such as genetics (including pharmacogenetics),
gender, ethnicity, age, behavior, and/or possible pathophysiological changes due to
disease.
 Think about a personalized plan of care based on these influencing factors and
patient history in your case study.
By Day 3 of Week 1
Post a description of the patient case from your experiences, observations, and/or
clinical practice from the last 5 years. Then, describe factors that might have
influenced pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic processes of the patient you
identified. Finally, explain details of the personalized plan of care that you would
develop based on influencing factors and patient history in your case. Be specific
and provide examples.
By Day 6 of Week 1
Read a selection of your colleagues’ responses and respond to at least two of
your colleagues on two different days by suggesting additional patient factors that
might have interfered with the pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic processes
of the patients they described. In addition, suggest how the personalized plan of
care might change if the age of the patient were different and/or if the patient had a
comorbid condition, such as renal failure, heart failure, or liver failure.
Assignment: Ethical and Legal Implications of Prescribing Drugs
What type of drug should you prescribe based on your patient’s diagnosis? How
much of the drug should the patient receive? How often should the drug be
administered? When should the drug not be prescribed? Are there individual
patient factors that could create complications when taking the drug?

Should you be prescribing drugs to this patient? How might different state
regulations affect the prescribing of this drug to this patient?
These are some of the questions you might consider when selecting a treatment
plan for a patient.  

Photo Credit: Getty Images/Caiaimage
As an advanced practice nurse prescribing drugs, you are held accountable for
people’s lives every day. Patients and their families will often place trust in you
because of your position. With this trust comes power and responsibility, as well as
an ethical and legal obligation to “do no harm.” It is important that you are aware
of current professional, legal, and ethical standards for advanced practice nurses
with prescriptive authority. Additionally, it is important to ensure that the treatment
plans and administration/prescribing of drugs is in accordance with the regulations
of the state in which you practice. Understanding how these regulations may affect
the prescribing of certain drugs in different states may have a significant impact on
your patient’s treatment plan. In this Assignment, you explore ethical and legal
implications of scenarios and consider how to appropriately respond.
To Prepare
 Review the Resources for this module and consider the legal and ethical
implications of prescribing prescription drugs, disclosure, and nondisclosure.
 Review the scenario assigned by your Instructor for this Assignment.
 Search specific laws and standards for prescribing prescription drugs and for
addressing medication errors for your state or region, and reflect on these as you
review the scenario assigned by your Instructor.
 Consider the ethical and legal implications of the scenario for all stakeholders
involved, such as the prescriber, pharmacist, patient, and patient’s family.
 Think about two strategies that you, as an advanced practice nurse, would use to
guide your ethically and legally responsible decision-making in this scenario,
including whether you would disclose any medication errors.
By Day 7 of Week 1
Write a 2- to 3-page paper that addresses the following:
 Explain the ethical and legal implications of the scenario you selected on all
stakeholders involved, such as the prescriber, pharmacist, patient, and patient’s
family.
 Describe strategies to address disclosure and nondisclosure as identified in the
scenario you selected. Be sure to reference laws specific to your state.

 Explain two strategies that you, as an advanced practice nurse, would use to guide
your decision making in this scenario, including whether you would disclose your
error. Be sure to justify your explanation. 
 Explain the process of writing prescriptions, including strategies to minimize
medication errors.
Reminder: The School of Nursing requires that all papers submitted include a title
page, introduction, summary, and references. The School of Nursing Writing
Template with Instructions provided