Pharmacology: Work Activities for Modules - Essay Example

? Pharmacology: Work Activities for Modules Number Department Section According to the Australian Government Department for Health and Ageing (AGDHA), the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) operates under its aegis. In turn, TGA is a trifurcation of Monitoring and Compliance Group, Market Authorization Group and the Regulatory Support Group (AGDHA, 2012, p. 1). Section 2: National Medicines Policy and the Quality Use of Medicine 2. Developing and Implementing a National Drug Policy: The Key Components of a National Drug Policy The National Drug Policy (NDP) is very important because of the pivotal roles it has continued to play, for the benefit of the public, the healthcare services sector and the government. Specifically, the NDP ensures favourable access by enhancing equitable affordability and availability of both traditional and modern medicine. NDP also exists to consolidate the safety, quality and effectiveness of all medicines. The same NDP also seeks to promote cost-effective and therapeutic use of drugs by both consumers and healthcare providing professionals (WHO, 2003, p. 3). In respect to the foregoing, the NDP takes its 9 components seriously. These components include: selection of essential drugs; human resources; monitoring and evaluation; research; affordability; supply systems; financing options; regulation and quality assurance and rational use. Among many things, this aforementioned effort will help ensure the effective and safe use of medicine, minimization of overuse, misuse and underuse of drugs and the monitoring of outcomes of drug use. 3. How to Support the Quality Use of Medicines There are several steps that a paramedic can take as a way of promoting the quality use of medicine. First and foremost, this will involve entrenching the culture of careful selection of management options. To achieve this end, the use and strengthening of the National Medicines Policy and the Quality Use of Medicines may be involved. Conversely, this can be achieved by having the National Drug Policy being strengthened, as a way of ensuring the effectiveness and cause of the National Medicines Policy and the Quality Use of Medicines (National Strategy for Quality Use of Medicine, 2002, p. 3). It is through the creation of effective management options that suitable, effective and safe use of medicine can be made a reality and sustained. To this effect, steps must be made to ensure the continual consideration of the role of medicines in promotion of health and treatment of diseases. This effort may also portend, promoting alternative modes of treatment to medicine. This is because, overreliance on medicine creates resistance to clinical drugs, yet there are viable alternatives to drugs. This measure would best be followed with efforts towards the minimization of overuse, misuse and underuse of drugs. Part of this effort is that the medicine chosen is fully suitable for the condition that is set for treatment. In turn, effective management will help National Drug Policy ensure the careful selection of medicines so that the most viable options are designated for procurement and public use. In this light, the best option will take into account: risks and benefits of the drug; the individual’s health condition; the length and dosage of the treatment; conditions that co-occur with the drug; alternative therapies that occur alongside the medicinal resources; and the financial implications of the drug to the community, the individual and the healthcare system (cost). Likewise, it will be also expedient to set up measures that would facilitate the monitoring of the outcome that would be realized, as a result of specific drug use (Australian Government Department of Health and Aging, 2008, p. 56). Again, for a potential paramedic, there are several alternative steps that can be taken to enhance Quality Use of Medicines (QUM) as a service that is provided through a facility-wide methodology, to a residential aged care facility which is funded by the Australian Government. It would be important to vouch for the creation and bolstering of the healthcare services provider’s eligibility criteria. To this effect, anyone applying to be part of the QUM will have to be: a registered pharmacist; a proprietor of a healthcare or business entity which has a contract with multiple registered pharmacists who can execute QRM services on his behalf; and a proprietor of a Section 90 pharmacy. In the same wavelength, the owner must also: possess a valid QUM Service Agreement; divulge all details deemed necessary by Medicare Australia when applying for participation in QUM programmes; and be in agreement with all terms and conditions of QUM, including compliance with the payment of service fees (WHO, 2003, p. 5). This is still part of the resolve to strengthen effective management of drug use. Section 3: Drug Information Resources for Australian Health Care Professionals Blackwell, G., 2008. The future of IT in healthcare. Informatics for Health & Social Care, 33 (4), 211-326. This journal article is of critical importance to the study, since it details how development in IT can be harnessed to facilitate faster, more transparent and equitable distribution of medical services in the healthcare services sector. The limitation that accosts this article is its failure to account for the fact that several years after the development of IT technology, provision and distribution of medical services are still shrouded in inequality, inaccessibility and incompetence. This means that several human factors come into play in the effort to disburse medical services, yet this article overlooks this fact. Dunn, S. V. et al., 2010. Nurse Practitioner Prescribing Practice in Australia. Journal of the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners, 22 (3), p. 150-155. This journal article is of critical importance, since it helps facilitate comparative analyses between medical services provision in Australia and America. Thus, the article helps identify the strengths and weaknesses of the Australian medical system. The limitation of this journal is its being too American-specific. This makes it mandatory to search for other materials, so that the comparative analysis can be meaningful. FitzGerald, G. & Ashby, R., 2010. National Health and Hospital Network for Australia’s Future Implications for Emergency Medicine. Emergency Medicine Australasia, 22 (5), 384-390. This journal article remains a key point of reference since it details the bureaucratic hierarchy that defines the existence and operation of the Australian medical services sector. Likewise, the article details how the Australian medical services bureaucracy affects the dispensation of emergency medical conditions. The failure to tackle the issuance of normal (nonemergency) medical services may be the only bane of this article. Nonemergency medical services cannot be ruled out of medical discussions since they account for over 60% of Australian medical services provision, yet this article sidesteps this fact. Healthcare & Pharmaceuticals Forecast Asia & Australasia. 2005. Australia. The Economist Intelligence Unit Ltd., p. 21-7. The importance of this journal article is premised on the fact that it divulges on details on the developments that have been made in the pharmaceutical sector, in Asia and Australia. This comparative analysis can help determine the position of Australia’s pharmaceutical services, with the gains made being consolidated and the points of weakness sustained being corrected. The only shortcoming of this article is its failure to propose corrective measures that should be put in place to ameliorate medical services provision in Australia. This is tantamount to diagnosing a problem without proposing a feasible nostrum for the problem. MacKeigan, L. D. & Nissen, L. M., 2008. Clinical Pharmacy Services in the Home. Disease Management & Health Outcomes, 16 (4), p. 227-244. The importance of this article is seen in the fact that in it, MacKeigan and Nissen discuss how contemporary issues in conventional medical services can be handled. Matters such as overcrowding and overutilization of healthcare facilities are for instance proposed by MacKeigan and Nissen as having their solution in home services. Thus, MacKeigan and Nissen take time to divulge pertinent details to successful home care, while tackling relevant matters such as hygiene. The broad aspect that this journal takes has left little room for discussions on Australia-specific medical matters, and this thereby serving as the article’s point of weakness. Section 4: Over-The-Counter & Complementary and Alternative Medicines The articles of choice are titled, Herbs at a Glance: St. John’s Wort, and Do not stop taking St John's Wort by Foster (1) and Lewith (1), respectively. As a yellow flowery herb, St. John’s Wort is used for treating nerve pain, malaria, mental disorders, wounds, insect bites and wounds. The herb is also used as a sedative. First, the flowery tops of the herb are to be crushed to make tea, capsules and tablets (Klemov, et al, 2011, p. 1). Abakuks and Deters (2012, p. 1) point out that St. John’s Wort have an effect on genes that relate to oxidative stress. St. John’s Wort must not be administered with some antidepressants. The failure to adhere to this warning may expose the patient to serious serotonin-related consequences. It is also important to remember that St. John’s Wort has never been proven to serve as an effective therapy for depression. Thus, it is unadvisable to use St. John’s Wort for this purpose since; when inadequately treated, depression can prove to be severe. Likewise, it is important to regard the fact that using St. John’s Wort for treatment impedes other forms of medication such as contraceptives, antidepressants, cardiac medication, HIV-prevention, treatment of cancer and treatment of seizure. NB: The copy and pasted articles of St. John’s Wort come in their own Ms-Word documents to abate the danger of plagiarism. References AGDHA., 2012. TGA Structure. Available in: Web for Australian Government Department for Health and Ageing (AGDHA), website: http://www.tga.gov.au/about/tga-structure.htm Australian Government Department of Health and Aging., 2008. Guidelines for Preparing Submissions to the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee. Commonwealth of Australia: Canberra. Available in: Web for Australian Government Department of Health and Aging website: http://www.pbs.gov.au/industry/listing/elements/pbac-guidelines/PBAC4.3.2.pdf Abakuks, S. & Deters, M., 2012. Polysaccharides of St. John's Wort Herb Stimulate NHDF Proliferation and NEHK Differentiation via Influence on Extracellular Structures and Signal Pathways. NCBI Resources. Available in: Web for NCBI, website: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22848211 Blackwell, G., 2008. The future of IT in healthcare. Informatics for Health & Social Care, 33 (4), 211-326. Dunn, S. V. et al., 2010. Nurse Practitioner Prescribing Practice in Australia. Journal of the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners, 22 (3), p. 150-155. FitzGerald, G. & Ashby, R., 2010. National Health and Hospital Network for Australia’s Future Implications for Emergency Medicine. Emergency Medicine Australasia, 22 (5), 384-390. Foster, S., 2011. Herbs at a Glance: St. John’s Wort. Available in: Web for National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, website: http://nccam.nih.gov/health/stjohnswort/ataglance.htm Healthcare & Pharmaceuticals Forecast Asia & Australasia. 2005. Australia. The Economist Intelligence Unit Ltd., p. 21-7. Klemov, K. et al., 2011. Medical Attributes of St. John’s Wort. NCBI Resources. Available in: Web for NCBI, website: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK92750/#ch11_sec20 Lewith, G., 2010. “Health.” Do not stop taking St John's Wort - It Really Does Help Depression. Available in: Web for Mail Online website: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1323784/St-Johns-Wort-herb-really-does-help-beat-depression.html MacKeigan, L. D. & Nissen, L. M., 2008. Clinical Pharmacy Services in the Home. Disease Management & Health Outcomes, 16 (4), p. 227-244. National Strategy for Quality Use of Medicines., 2002. “National Strategy for Quality Use of Medicines.” National English Edition. Available in: Web for National Strategy for Quality Use of Medicines website: http://www.health.gov.au/internet/main/publishing.nsf/Content/CA777524C860DFF2CA256F1800468B61/$File/natstrateng.pdf World Health Organisation., 2003. How to Develop and Implement A National Drug Policy. WHO Policy Perspectives on Medicine. Read More