Authors

  1. Petges, Nancy EdD, MSN, RN, CNE

Article Content

Competent and safe medication administration depends on the application of clinical judgment to specific patient situations. In an effort to develop students' clinical judgment, pharmaceutical television advertisements were introduced in a prelicensure nursing pharmacology course. Five small groups were formed and assigned a link to 1 of 5 pharmaceutical advertisements consistent with the lecture material for the day. Students also had access to an electronic drug reference, their pharmacology textbook, and lecture materials to supplement the information provided in the commercial. Each small group viewed the advertisement and answered the following prompts about the medication advertised in the commercial: (a) "Why would a patient be taking this medication?", (b) "What side effects of this medication concern you? Do you have safety concerns for this patient?", (c) "What nursing assessments would be important for this patient?", (d) "Are there labs that you would want to check?", (e) "What are 2 priority interventions that the nurse should implement for a patient taking this medication?", and (f) "What education should be provided to a patient about this medication?" After the small groups completed the prompts, the groups share their answers with the larger group. This activity prompted the students to consider important aspects of clinical judgment applicable to safe medication administration in the clinical area.