Pharmacology and the Nursing Process - Essay Example

The main tasks of patient teaching are the following:

- increasing the knowledge of patients about a disease for the purpose of formation of adequate ideas of its causes and understanding of the factors influencing the forecast;

- increase of commitment of patients to the implementation of recommendations of a doctor and rehabilitation actions;

- training of patients and their relatives the skills of self-checking the state and rendering the first pre-medical aid;

- increasing the responsibility of the patient for the preservation of the health and formation of high motivation to participate in rehabilitation programs;

- formation of abilities to overcome behavior stereotypes.

The problem of the correct drug therapy became one of the main in medicine. It is proved that the inefficiency of drug treatment in half of the cases is explained by the wrong attitude of the patients to the doctor’s prescriptions (reduction of a dose, spontaneous breaks, even non-use of drugs). Certainly, such behavior patients cause much harm. The main reason for this phenomenon is the absence of motivation from the side of a patient to the correct drug intake, first of all, because of the lack of information on the importance and usefulness of treatment. Such a neglecting attitude can lead to serious consequences. Sometimes people refuse for taking drugs simply because they consider them to be harmful to their organism (London, 2009).

In the given case a patient is a very adult person who has been healthy during all his life, thus he knows little first about his illness, secondly about the usefulness of the prescribed drug. This is natural that he denies the drug intake until he receives enough information about what he is going to take. Many patients are very suspicious about what they are going to take, thus the task of a nurse is to provide the information on the disease, tell about the danger it may cause, and explain why this particular drug is necessary. Detailed information should be provided in order to make a patient understand the effect of drugs and its importance (Lilley et al, 2014).

Now the task of a nurse is not only to fulfill the orders of a doctor automatically but also to provide a patient with the necessary support. Patient training is a kind of such support. It not only provides the patients with the necessary knowledge and practical skills but also provides them with necessary social support. All this promotes the improvement of their quality of life, preservation, and restoration of working capacity.