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What type of drug should you prescribe based on your patient’s diagnosis? How much of the drug should the patient receive? How often should the drug be administered? When should the drug not be prescribed? Are there individual patient factors that could create complications when taking the drug? Should you be prescribing drugs to this patient? How might different state regulations affect the prescribing of this drug to this patient?
What type of drug should you prescribe based on your patient’s diagnosis? How much of the drug should the patient receive? How often should the drug be administered? When should the drug not be prescribed? Are there individual patient factors that could create complications when taking the drug? Should you be prescribing drugs to this patient? How might different state regulations affect the prescribing of this drug to this patient?
SCENARIO – Lois, who is in the last stages of breast cancer, was recently admitted into a hospice program. Her husband Henry, is relieved to have a hospice nurse come into their home and help with the care of his wife. After Lois had been receiving care for a week, Henry asked when he should take Lois into the hospital out-patient department for more chemotherapy. The hospice nurse said, “I thought that you understood that since treatments would no longer help Lois and she would ultimately die, that she would not receive any more treatments once she entered the Hospice program.” Henry said he did not understand this and insisted that he wanted everything done to save Lois.
Instructions:
Read the scenario above and then, answer the following questions::
How could this misunderstanding have been avoided?
What discussions should Lois and Henry have had with each other before Lois went into the hospice program?
What could hospice programs do to better inform the general public of their purpose?
After assessing and diagnosing a patient, PMHNPs must take into consideration special characteristics of the patient before determining an appropriate course of treatment. For pharmacological treatments that are not FDA-approved for a particular use or population, off-label use may be considered when the potential benefits could outweigh the risks.
In this Discussion, you will investigate a specific disorder and determine potential appropriate treatments for when it occurs in an older adult or pregnant woman.