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Promoting rational use of medicines: A Manual for Nurses

The role that nurses play in the care of patients and nursing patients from illness to health is well known. There is, however, not enough cognizance of the role that nurses play or can play in the drug use process. While doctors prescribe and pharmacists dispense, nurses have responsibility for administering medication to patients in their care. As a corollary, nurses need also to watch the effect of medicines on the patients for seeking directions from prescribers for appropriate changes in therapy. Therefore, in the matter of drug use, nurses have dual responsibility of administering medicines and also monitoring the effect of medicines on patients. Thus, perhaps, next only to clinicians in the health delivery system, nurses have to play a major role in implementing the concept of safe use of medicines. Nurses need to play a role in drug use reviews focusing on drug and therapeutics that is high use, high cost or problem prone is also important. It is in the above context that the importance of exposing nurses to the concept of safe use of medicines and strategies for implementing the safe administration of medicines become important.

This manual, focuses on the nursing profession, outlines the concept of safe use of medicines, medication safety and guidance on appropriate medication, adverse drug reaction monitoring and prevention drug interactions and infection control and the importance of antibiotics in different settings and contexts.