Essentials of Medicines Management for Mental Health Nurses

Abstract

Introduction Pharmacology and medicines management is something my student nurses tell me all the time, that is very important to them. They also tell me that the subject of psychopharmacology is daunting and often find the textbooks dedicated to it ‘overwhelming’, ‘difficult to understand’, ‘over our heads’, ‘not real life’ and ‘expensive’. I don’t know that I can say this book solves all of those issues, but I know that writing this book, with students (and nurses in general) in mind, has made me very aware of those issues when deciding how to lay out chapters and to display information. It also informed the choice of inclusion of case studies, clinical tips and applied scenarios. Nurses need to understand pharmacology and medicines management, yes, no question. But they also need to know how to apply this knowledge to the patients in their care. This book links theory to practice in every chapter and helps nurses transfer their learning from the page to the practice situation. Nurses often say they wish there was more pharmacology taught at undergraduate level, but as an educator I understand the pressures of a nursing programme and the importance of all the other subjects taught. However as a nurse and pharmacologist I see and understand their point. As educators we instil the importance of pharmacological knowledge and teach the basics of pharmacology to give students the ‘building blocks’ of knowledge. But each student and their experience in practice is very different, so knowing where to find and how to use information is still one of the best skills we can teach. Combine this with enthusiasm for a subject and a lifelong learner is born. Learning about medicines as a nurse is fundamental to a major component of the role they will play [medicines management] and the care they will deliver, so motivating students to learn about drugs in an easy, accessible and applicable format is essential. This book is written with that purpose in mind. There is a proverb which sums this up well for me ‘Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day; show him how to catch fish, and you feed him for a lifetime’. This book does not give you all the snapshots of pharmacological information for you to pick and eat for the day you want. It gives you basic knowledge, clinical understanding and the tools to find and apply information that will have you ‘fishing’ for pharmacological knowledge every day for the rest of your career.