Types of Medications Quiz

Medications and Routes of Administration

• A medication is a substance administered to diagnose, cure, or relieve a symptom, or to prevent disease.

Classification of Medications

• Depressant: lowers functional or vital capacity.
• Diuretic: induces and increases the discharge of urine.
• Emetic: induces vomiting.
• Laxative: promotes defecation by a mild action.
• Narcotic: causes sleep or total unconsciousness and complete insensibility to pain.
• Prophylactic: prevents the development of disease.
• Stimulant: increases functional activity.

Factors Affecting Medications

• Developmental factors: pregnancy, age, weight.
• Gender.
• Diet: e.g., Vitamin K found in green leafy vegetables can counteract the anticoagulant effect of Warfarin (Coumadin).
• Illness and disease.
• Time of administration.

The Right Dose

• Dose: the quantity of a drug to be administered at one time.
• Dosage: the regimen that determines the size, frequency, and number of doses of a therapeutic agent to be administered to a patient.
• Effective dose: the amount of the therapeutic agent sufficient to produce its desired effect.
• Curative dose: the amount of therapeutic agent necessary to restore health.
• Minimal dose: the small amount of therapeutic agent producing a therapeutic effect.
• Maximum dose: the large amount of therapeutic agent that produces a consistent effect with the safe amount.
• Toxic dose: the quantity of therapeutic agent that produces poison or causes death.
• Lethal dose: the amount of therapeutic agent sufficient to produce death.

The Right Drug

• One drug can have as many as three kinds of names: chemical, generic, and trademark or brand names.
• Chemical name: the name by which a chemist knows the drug; it describes the constituent of the drug precisely.
• Generic name: the name that is not protected by a trademark; it is descriptive of the drug's chemical structure.
• Trademark or brand name: the name given by the drug manufacturer.

Effects of Drugs

• Therapeutic effect or desired effect: the primary effect intended; the reason the drug is prescribed.
• Side effect or secondary effect: unintended; usually predictable and may be either harmless or potentially harmful.
• Adverse effect: a more severe side effect; may justify the discontinuation of a drug.
• Drug toxicity: the deleterious effects of a drug on an organism or tissue.
• Drug allergy: an immunological reaction to a drug.

The Right Route

• Oral route: the most common route of administration.
• Parenteral route: not through the digestive system, but rather by injection.
• Types of parenteral route:
  • Intradermal or intracutaneous.
  • Subcutaneous or hypodermic.
  • Intramuscular.
  • Intravenous.
  • Inhalation.
  • Rectal.
  • Vaginal.
  • Topical.
  • Transdermal.

Administration of Medications

• The nurse who prepares a given medication should administer it.
• Six important rules in administering medications:
  1. The right patient.
  2. The right drug.
  3. The right dose.
  4. The right route.
  5. The right time.
  6. The right documentation.

Types of Medications

• Tablets: may be crushed if necessary.
• Enteric-coated tablets: dissolve in the more alkaline secretions of the intestine; should not be crushed.
• Sublingual tablets: dissolve quickly under the tongue.
• Coded tablets: have a number, letter, or both, that make them easily identifiable.
• Capsules: gelatin containers that hold a drug in solid or liquid form.
• Ointments: semisolid preparations in a petroleum or lanolin base.
• Creams: semisolid drug preparations applied externally to the skin or mucous membranes.
• Powders: may be applied to the skin in dry form.
• Paste: a semi-fluid preparation usually with a non-fatty base.
• Liniment: solutions of irritant drugs in an oily, soapy, or alcoholic base applied by being rubbed on the skin.