Pharmacology for Health Workers Course Today, the practitoner is a pivotal member of the healthcare team with increasing responsibility & is expected to exercise judgement in the management of the patient’s drug therapy. To do this effectively requires an understanding of drug action & the ability to detect & evaluate both beneficial & adverse responses to drugs. The Learning Outcomes for this course are: Session One is an introductory session that deals with pharmacology & healthcare practice. We introduce the language of pharmacology by looking at the meaning of some of the terms in pharmacology, how drugs are supplied to the public & the law as it relates to nurses, healthcare practitioners & prescribing. The idea of a drug being formulated into a medicine & some of the reasons why this is necessary are explained. The session emphasises the importance of the absorption, distribution, metabolism & elimination of drugs from the body in determining the response to drugs, & takes a look at some of the factors that influence the way in which the patient responds to medicine. Session Two deals with the principles of the administration of drugs. We look at the different routes used & the advantages & disadvantages for each. The session also introduces the importance of nonpharmacological factors in the response to a medicine. Finally, the idea of drug interactions is introduced. In Session Three we deal with the factors that influence how the drug moves round the body, from its site of administration until it is finally eliminated. Session Four introduces the concept of chemical messengers & cell receptors for these messengers. You will learn how important our knowledge of receptors is in the development of new drugs & the targeting of drugs for specific diseases.