Forensic Nursing Chronicles

People should be informed about the risks/dangers of common over the counter drugs. Some common drugs such as Tylenol can be harmful, even potentially lethal when taken in large amounts or overdose causing hepatic necrosis. Until recent years, not much was advertised about Tylenol. I myself had no knowledge of the harmful effects of Tylenol until studying Pharmacology. If people were better informed by the drug companies, injury from otc medications would decrease.

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A problem that comes with every medication is the possibility of toxicity. Toxicity is defined as a reaction caused by excessive dosing (Lehne). Yet toxicity can be caused from normal therapeutic dosing used in everyday administration. Some people cultural background makes them more prone to get toxicity and even age or sex puts them at risk. Women metabolize faster then men. Age plays a factor that a small doses may be necessary to prevent toxic reactions. Although some medications can cause organ specific toxicity. Thus causing toxic effects to the liver, kidney, or even the cardiac muscle. Some medications can cause damage to certain organs, thus causing the organ not to function properly. The most common toxic effects happen in the liver or alterations to the cardiac function. Toxicity can also occur when the physician or nurse is unaware of any herbal medications or remedies the patient might be taking. Some medications can react with the herbal medications causing a toxic effect. To prevent always ask if the patient is taking any herbal remedies during your assessment.

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Many problems can arise from medications. Some are caused by the nurses and some are caused by the patients. Medication errors can occur quite often and do occur more than people think. medication errors can happen in a number of different ways; from wrong patient, dose, drug, any violation of the rights of the patient. They can also be caused by an overdose, under dose, even an extra dose. sometimes it can be caused from the dilution of the drug being wrong. The rate of the infusion can also cause and error and sometimes the integrity of the patients vein. Sometime when patient have problems swallowing medications the nurse will ask the physician to crush the medications. Some drugs are not made to be crushed they are made to bypass the stomach and absorb in the intestines, thus cause a medication error and possible toxicity from rapid absorption. The best way to prevent an error is to check and recheck all steps in your medication administration process. verify patient, drug, physician orders.

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Most people don’t even think of the consequences that are intailed with mixing perscription drugs. Take Heath Ledger or instance, he died tragically from mixing six medications that include sedatives, pain killers and antianxiety drugs. Although this was ruled as an accidental death, suicide was not out of the question. You might wonder how a person would gain access to so many perscription drugs at once. In Heath Ledger’s case, 3 of the 6 medications were perscribed in Europe, and the other in the US. The night that he died, he had taken 2 narcotic painkillers, 3 benzodiazepine tranquilizers and an over the counter sleepaid, which proved to be a deadly concoction. Not only should the doctor oversee druge-drug interaction, but the pharmacies should mandate that before a patient picks up their perscriptions, they must consult with the pharmacist about drug interactions as well.

Technorati Tags: Forensic Nursing, Forensic Nursing Chronicles, Forensic Nursing Theories, Medication Errors