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Unit Summary
Unit type
UG Coursework Unit
Credit points
12
AQF level
Level of learning
Introductory
Former School/College
Pre-requisites
For students in Bachelor of Nursing - Enrolled Nurse Pathway (3007303): Must have completed or be currently enrolled in BIO20003 - Intermediate Anatomy and Physiology For all other students: BIO00307 - Human Physiology OR BIO71003 - Human Physiology II AND BIO71002 - Human Physiology I
Unit aim
Provides students with knowledge of pharmacological agents and their current use in the prevention and treatment of disease and with foundational knowledge of the principles of safe medication management.
Unit content
- Therapeutic drugs in Australia/Principles of safe medication administration
- Information systems, monitoring and recording of medications
- Pharmacology of the autonomic nervous system
- Major drugs affecting the nervous system
- Major classes of drugs affecting the cardiovascular, respiratory, renal, gastrointestinal, endocrine and reproductive systems
- Anaesthetics, analgesics and anti-inflammatory drugs
- Anti-bacterial, anti-viral and anti-fungal drugs
- Psychotherapeutic drugs
- Pharmacology in the elderly and polypharmacy
- Over-the-counter drugs, drug toxicity and adverse drug reactions
Learning outcomes
Unit Learning Outcomes express learning achievement in terms of what a student should know, understand and be able to do on completion of a unit. These outcomes are aligned with the graduate attributes. The unit learning outcomes and graduate attributes are also the basis of evaluating prior learning.
| On completion of this unit, students should be able to: | GA1 | GA2 | GA3 | GA4 | GA5 | GA6 | GA7 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | discuss guidelines for the access and use of medicines within the Australian health care system | |||||||
| 2 | describe the principles of pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics | |||||||
| 3 | describe the mechanisms of action, pharmacological effects, therapeutic uses, contraindications and adverse effects of major classes of drugs and selected specific drugs | |||||||
| 4 | recall the effects of drug toxicity and polypharmacy on the human body | |||||||
| 5 | develop the skills necessary to research medications and accurately present that information to others. | |||||||
On completion of this unit, students should be able to:
-
discuss guidelines for the access and use of medicines within the Australian health care system
- GA1:
- GA4:
-
describe the principles of pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics
- GA1:
- GA4:
-
describe the mechanisms of action, pharmacological effects, therapeutic uses, contraindications and adverse effects of major classes of drugs and selected specific drugs
- GA1:
- GA4:
-
recall the effects of drug toxicity and polypharmacy on the human body
- GA1:
- GA4:
-
develop the skills necessary to research medications and accurately present that information to others.
- GA1:
- GA4:
- GA5:
Prescribed texts
- Prescribed text information is not currently available.
- Bullock, S, 2017, Fundamentals of Pharmacology , 8th edn, Pearson Australia. ISBN: 9781442563100.