Preface
P
harmacology is regarded by some as a difficult area to
teach in standard nursing, midwifery and professional
healthcare curricula, whether it be at the diploma,
undergraduate or graduate level. Many related pharma-
cology texts are large and burdensome, mainly because
they need to cover not only the basic pharmacology, but
also the particulars included in each area considered.
Teachers are scarce, and time and money often dictate
that the invaluable content is incorporated into other
courses. As a result, the content is often lost.
At the same time, changes in healthcare delivery—
more outpatient and home-based care, shorter hospital
stays and more self-care—have resulted in additional
legal and professional responsibilities for nurses, mid
wives and other health professionals, making them ever
more responsible for the safe and effective delivery of
drug therapy.
Pharmacology should not be seen as such a formi-
dable obstacle in nursing and professional healthcare
curricula. The study of drug therapy incorporates
physiology, pathophysiology, chemistry and clinical fun-
damentals—subjects that are already incorporated into
curricula in most schools.
OUR PHILOSOPHY
McKenna’s Pharmacology for Nursing and Health Pro-
fessionals
is a text for nursing and professional healthcare
students that approaches pharmacology as an under-
standable, teachable and learnable subject. It is based on
the premise that students first need to have a solid and
clearly focused concept of the principles of drug therapy
before they can easily grasp the myriad details associated
with individual drugs. Armed in advance with this fun-
damental knowledge of pharmacology, the student can
then appreciate and use the specific details that are so
readily available in many annually updated and published
drug guides, such as Wolters Kluwer Health’s
McKenna’s
Drug Handbook for Nursing and Midwifery
.
With this goal in mind,
McKenna’s Pharmacology
for Nursing and Health Professionals
provides a concise
and uncluttered text for today’s student, presenting the
subject in a user-friendly and understandable manner.
Because this text is designed to be used in conjunction
with a handbook of current drug information, it remains
streamlined.
Thoroughly revised and updated,
the second edition
of
McKenna’s Pharmacology for Nursing and Health
Professionals
emphasises “need-to-know” concepts.
The text reviews and integrates previously learned
knowledge of physiology, chemistry and clinical fun-
damentals into chapters focused on helping students to
conceptualise what is important to know about each
group of drugs. Illustrations and tables sum up concepts
to enhance learning.
Carefully designed pedagogical features further
focus student learning on clinical application, critical
thinking, safety, lifespan issues related to drug therapy,
evidence-based practice, individual and family teaching,
and case-study-based critical thinking exercises that
incorporate clinical reasoning principles.
Check your
understanding
sections at the end of each chapter
provide review questions to help the student master the
material and prepare for examinations.
ORGANISATION
McKenna’s Pharmacology for Nursing and Health Pro-
fessionals
is organised following a “simple-to-complex”
approach, much like the syllabus for a basic pharma-
cology course. Because students learn best “from the
bottom up”, the text is divided into 11 distinct parts.
Part 1
begins with an overview of basic pharmacol-
ogy, including challenges such as street drugs, herbal
therapies and information overload. Each of the other
parts begins with a review of the physiology of the
system affected by the specific drugs being discussed.
This review refreshes the information for students and
provides a quick and easy reference when they are
reading about drug actions.
Part 2
introduces the drug classes, starting with
chemotherapeutic agents—both antimicrobial and
antineoplastic drugs. Because the effectiveness of these
drugs depends on their interference with the most
basic element of body physiology—the cell—students
can easily understand the pharmacology of this class.
Mastering the pharmacotherapeutic effects of this drug
class helps students to establish a firm grasp of the basic
principles taught in Part 1. Once the easiest pharmaco-
logical concepts are understood, students are enabled
to move on to the more challenging physiological and
pharmacological concepts.
