The SOCK Method – O

In this lecture we’re going to talk about the O portion of the SOCK method. Now, the O portion stands for Organs, and we’ve discussed pieces of this in other lectures, and that’s because organs plays a role in everything else that we do with the SOCK method. That’s why when we talk about the SOCK method the O really comes first because what it requires us to do is it requires us to focus on major organ systems, and how medications are going to affect those major organ systems.
Medications can affect one or more organs. If I give a medication for the heart it’s obviously going to have an impact on other parts of the body. It’s not just going to impact the heart, it’s going to impact the body as a whole, so we must know the target organ system for the medication that we’re giving.
Now, this requires some prioritization as well. We always talk about the big three organ systems at NRSNG, and those stand for cardiac, respiratory, and neuro. We must focus on how medications impact the cardiac system first, then the respiratory system, then the neuro system. Now, other organ systems play a role as well, but those three must come first, and in that order.
From there, we can then begin to focus on the renal system, the GI/GU system, the integumentary system, and then the musculoskeletal system. We focus on cardiac, respiratory, neuro, then renal, GI/GU, integumentary, and musculoskeletal. As we focus on the organ systems in that way it allows us to say these are life-threatening down to these are just things that we don’t want. If a medication causes osteoporosis, but it could also cause pulmonary edema we care much more about the pulmonary edema, because that’s going to kill our patient quickly, than we do about the osteoporosis.
We focus on the organ systems, we focus on the major organ systems first, and then we begin to move down. This helps us understand what medications we should focus on, it helps us understand what side effects we should focus on, and it helps us really understand everything that’s going on. So, I then want you to prioritize in this way, does the medication affect the airway, breathing, or circulation? We must focus on it in that way. An example of this would be steroids. Steroids cause soggy bones or osteoporosis, this is far less detrimental to our patient than forgetting that it’s going to rise blood sugars, or depress the immune system, so we must focus on those medications, and those side effects that affect major organs, and we must prioritize in that way.
: So, O stands for organs, we focus on what is the target system of this medication, and what other systems are going to be affected by this medication, and we prioritize our organs, and our side effects, and the medications that we learn by how much it’s going to impact our patient. Cardio, respiratory, neuro, then we move on from there, renal, GI/GU, integumentary, musculoskeletal.
I think this is going to help you guys really understand where to focus your studies, and focusing on those major organ systems, those major organ system side effects, and those major organ system medications, and that’s going to help you find those medications, find those side effects that you truly must know because, again, you cannot learn it all, and this is a framework to get it all into your brain.
All right guys come I want you to go out and be your best selves today. Happy nursing.