patient. The elderly typically live on a fixed income and may be unable to pur-
chase expensive medications—even if the benefit outweighs the cost. Always
keep medication for the elderly simple and to a minimum.
Summary
There are five steps in the nursing process. These are assessment, diagnosis, plan-
ning, intervention, and evaluation. The assessment step collects data about the
patient that is analyzed to arrive at a nursing diagnosis. A care plan is then devel-
oped that describes what must be done to address the symptoms of the nursing
diagnosis. The care plan is then enacted during the intervention step and the results
are then evaluated. The care plan terminates if the goals of the plan are achieved
or revised if the goals are not achieved. Before any medication is given to a
patient, the nurse must assess a number of factors that include the drug order,
drug actions, interactions, and contraindications.
Educating the patient about medication is an important responsibility for the
nurse. The nurse must explain why the medication is given and how the patient can
self-medicate. The nurse must also make sure that the patient and the family know
the signs and symptoms of adverse side effects from the medication as well as any
toxic effects and dietary considerations to follow while taking the medication.
Cultural factors typically influence the patient’s belief about health and can
impact medication prescribed to treat a patient’s illness. The nurse must put
aside his or her own opinion about those beliefs and work within those limita-
tions when caring for the patient.
Genetic, ethnic, and racial differences play a role in the physiological response
to drugs. Some groups of patients are less responsive to certain medications be-
cause of genetic factors; other groups of patients can experience a toxic effect
because of hereditary traits.
Drugs can have different effects on the very young and the elderly because
of physiological changes in their bodies. The very young have immature
organs that are not yet able to metabolize, absorb, distribute, and excrete cer-
tain drugs.
Likewise, the elderly have mature organs that might have lost the capability
to properly process medication. Furthermore, the elderly may require multiple
medications simultaneously that can result in drug interactions that produce
adverse side effects.
CHAPTER 3 Pharmacology and the Nursing Process^57