Master the Principles of Effective Drug Therapy Current, concise, and optimized for today’s nursing practice, Focus on Nursing Pharmacology makes challenging concepts more approachable to establish a foundation for effective drug therapy throughout your nursing career. This updated 8th edition builds on your knowledge of physiology, chemistry and nursing fundamentals to help you conceptualize need-to-know information about each group of drugs, while engaging learning features cultivate your clinical application, critical thinking and patient education capabilities. NEW! Concept Mastery Alerts alert you to commonly misunderstood concepts. NEW! Unfolding case-based vignettes written by the National League for Nursing bring concepts to life through realistic clinical scenarios. Concise, streamlined approach emphasizes need-to-know information for efficient learning. Nursing Processes clarify the process for planning patient-centered care. Critical Thinking Scenarios guide you through the collection and application of data for commonly encountered clinical interactions. Nursing Considerations sections detail the rationale behind each nursing intervention to enhance your clinical decision-making capabilities. Drug Lists at the beginning of each chapter enable fast identification of prototype drugs for each class. Drugs in Focus tables provide at-a-glance reference for generic and trade names, usual dosage and indications for each drug within a class. Focus on Safe Medication Administration boxes help you ensure patient safety and increase the therapeutic effectiveness of drugs. Focus on the Evidence boxes identify the best nursing practices associated with specific drugs based on available evidence. Focus on Herbal and Alternative Therapies alert you to known interactions with specific herbs or alternative therapies that could affect drug actions. Focus on Calculations refine your calculation and measurement skills. Focus on Drug Therapy Across the Lifespan boxes provide quick access to drug class considerations for use with children, adults and the elderly. Focus on Gender Considerations and Focus on Cultural Considerations help you ensure effective, culturally sensitive drug therapy across diverse populations. Check Your Understanding sections equip you for your exams with NCLEX®-style review questions, including alternate-format questions. Watch and Learn videos available on thePoint® help you avoid medication errors in practice.

The eighth edition of Focus on Nursing Pharmacology is based on the premise that students first need to have a solid and clearly focused concept of the principles of drug therapy before they can easily grasp the myriad details associated with individual drugs. Armed with a fundamental knowledge of pharmacology, students appreciate and use the specific details that are readily available in the many annually updated and published nursing drug guides. With this goal in mind, Focus on Nursing Pharmacology provides a concise, user-friendly, uncluttered text for today's student. This difficult subject is presented in a streamlined, understandable, teachable, and learnable manner. Designed to be used in conjunction with a handbook of current drug information, content is streamlined and straight forward. The text reviews and integrates previously learned knowledge of physiology, chemistry, and nursing fundamentals into chapters focused on helping students conceptualize what is important to know about each group of drugs, with the prototype drug highlighted. Illustrations, sidebars, and tables sum up concepts to enhance learning. Special features further focus student learning on clinical application, critical thinking, patient safety, lifespan issues related to drug therapy, evidence-based practice, patient teaching, and case-study-based critical thinking exercises that incorporate nursing process principles. The new edition includes updated anatomy illustrations, expanded drug abuse content, and updated content throughout.

Karch’s Focus on Nursing Pharmacology, 9th Edition, makes challenging concepts approachable to help students establish a foundation for effective drug therapy throughout their nursing careers. Concise, clearly written, and streamlined for today’s busy students, this trusted text builds on students’ knowledge of physiology, chemistry, and nursing fundamentals to help them conceptualize need-to-know information. The thoroughly updated 9th Edition emphasizes content essential to students’ success on the NCLEX® and cultivates students’ clinical judgment to ensure a smooth, confident transition to nursing practice.

Get the right dosage of pharmacology content to succeed on the NCLEX and as a professional nurse with Pharmacology: A Patient-Centered Nursing Process Approach, 9th Edition. Using a streamlined prototype approach and an emphasis on nursing care, this text makes it easy for today’s nursing students to better understand the complicated subject of pharmacology. The book’s detailed chapter on dosage calculation, the nursing process framework for drug therapy, strong QSEN focus, and summaries of prototype drugs help deliver the perfect pharmacology foundation. This new edition also features an improved overall organization, more streamlined content, updated prototype drug charts, a new chapter on transplant drugs, expanded information on cultural considerations, new and updated critical thinking case studies, and much more. In all, it’s the surest way to put your best foot forward when it comes to nursing pharmacology on the NCLEX and in practice! UNIQUE! An extensive, color-coded Drug Calculations chapter presents six methods of dosage calculation, providing a helpful review and supplement to a dosage calculations textbook. UNIQUE! Nursing Process summaries present patient care and drug therapy within the framework of each step of the nursing process, including information on patient teaching and cultural considerations. UNIQUE! Illustrated overviews of normal anatomy and physiology open each unit and provide a critical foundational review for understanding how drugs work in each body system. Chapter on safety and quality discusses medication errors, specific nursing measures to promote safety, National Patient Safety Goals, and many other safety issues and concerns. Cultural considerations icons highlight important cultural considerations in the Nursing Process sections. QSEN focus emphasizes patient-centered care, safety, quality, and collaboration and teamwork. Application-level NCLEX Study Questions at the end of each chapter help prepare readers for the growing pharmacology coverage on the NCLEX Examination. Consistent RN-standard chapter pedagogy includes objectives, outlines, key terms with page references, and activities on the Evolve companion website. Coverage of prioritization throughout the text helps readers learn to prioritize nursing care and differentiate need-to-know from nice-to-know content.