All right. Now, we’re on to the C portion of the SOCK Method, and the C portion actually has three different things that we’re doing at this stage of the SOCK Method as we’re learning and mastering pharmacology.
The C stands for class, consideration, and cards, so we’re really focusing on what class of medication is, we’re understanding and focusing on the considerations of the medication, and then we’re making some drug cards. I’m going to show you how to do each of these stages and why they matter.
First of all, at the C level, at the class level, we’re really focusing on what pharmacological class is this medication? Now, you can hear that I said, what pharmacological class? We really focus on learning pharmacological class. The reason is, the pharmacological class really teaches us, or tells us how the medication works, where it works in the body, how it works in the body? The therapeutic class tells us how the medication helps.
An example of that is going to be [Cimetidine] or Tagamet. Cimetidine being our pharmacological class. The DINE tells us that this is a pharmacological class of histamine H2 antagonist. The therapeutic class is an anti ulcer, so knowing that it’s an histamine H2 antagonist, we know exactly where it’s working. It’s blocking this histamine, or this H2. It’s blocking the production of that. It’s blocking the secretion of that, so we know it’s an antagonist to histamine. That really takes us back to our A & P, what we’ve learned about histamine. It takes us back to where histamine is secreted, where it’s produced, how it works, and so we’re really starting to understand how the medication is working. That’s what we need to know to understand medications better, so as you’re learning these medications I want you to focus on pharmacological class.
Then we start to focus on considerations. We need to focus on considerations that have safety issues that affect major organ systems like we talked about in the O portion, and that might let the patient administer the medication on their own, or things that they need to understand if they are to administer this medication on their own. Specific examples would be speed of administration. If we’re told that we need to administer Zofran slowly, and it tells us a specific rate that we need to administer that, we must follow that administration concern. If we know that we must give adenosine at a different rate, we must follow that because there is reasons for that. We must understand and dig deeper, and deeper, and deeper to understand those reasons.
And then we need to understand other drug compatibilities, things like beta blockers and insulin. Why are we not giving those at the same time? Why do we need to be giving those at different times? Why do we need to be checking blood sugars apart from when we’re giving our beta blockers? There is reasons for those things, and we must be digging in and understanding those. As we do this again, like I said, really go back and focus on the O portion, which tells us to focus on major organ systems.
Then we need to look at patient education. How do they administer at home? We want them to be able to get to a place where they can administer their medications at home. How do they administer this at home, and are there any food interactions, especially things like grapefruit juice, and things like that?
Then we must focus on the vital information. You must anticipate reactions or effects of the medication that you’re giving. If you’re giving a CNS depression, you must anticipate depression of the central nervous system. You must be able to monitor and watch that. Your patient should be hooked up to an EKG. You should be monitoring their respirations. You should be monitoring their alertness and their level of consciousness. These are things that you must be doing as you’re administering these medications. These are the considerations that you must be looking at.
Lastly, guys and this is very important, be a clinician. Don’t just say, “Well, this is on my [MAR 00:04:03], so I must administer it this time.” You, as the nurse, must be a clinician and say, “You know what? Here is my patient’s vital signs. Here is how my patient is responding. Is this the most prudent action that I should be taking right now,” all right. That’s what you need to be doing in this consideration stage.
Then I want you guys to start making drug cards. Now, we’ve made a special layout for drug cards that I want you guys to use. It’s one of the cheat sheets in this pharmacology course. If you notice, this is set up specifically to help you work through the SOCK Method. We want you to focus on the generic name. Then you can also have the trade name there. I want you to focus first on the pharmacologic class. Then I want you to focus on the action. Why are we giving this? What are the disease states? What are some of the nursing considerations? What do we look at before we administer? What do we look at after we administer? What are some of the nursing considerations?
Armed with your list of your must know medications, understanding the organ systems, and really looking through the side effects, you now have a list of these must know medications. But, we’re going to talk about this in the K portion of the SOCK Method are these must know medications. I want you to print out as many copies of this cheat sheet as you can. I want you to fill them out for every medication that you’re trying to learn, and then I want you to organize them by generic name.
Now, I want you to go through an start memorizing these. Once you’ve created a card for each drug that you need to know, start redoing the cards with the ones that you’re using most often. If you’re giving protonixs everyday, you better understand protonixs really well. If you’re on a post op floor, or something, and you’re giving a lot of morphine, understand morphine really well. Start to fill these cards out with the medications that you’re giving most often, so that you can understand them very, very, very well as you go in and start taking care of your patients. Again, that cheat sheet is part of this Med Master course, this pharmacology course inside of NRSNG, and I want you to have that.
: C stands method, of our SOCK Method, class, considerations, and cards. We really want you to focus on the pharmacologic class because it plays a role in how the medication works. It helps you understand what’s happening in the body when you’re giving this medication. It helps you understand the A & P a little bit better.
And then, I want you guys to be a clinician. Really understand the considerations for your patient, for your patient’s vital signs, for them to be able to administer this medication at home, and understand that you’re the one making the decision when you’re standing in front of the patient with that vial of morphine, or whatever it is.
And then I want you guys to make cards. Create cards, organize them by pharmacologic class, by generic name. And then, start studying them, and start over with the medications that you’re giving most often.
You guys, I want you to be phenomenal nursing pharmacology clinicians. I believe that the SOCK Method can help you get there. Please follow it. Please pay attention to it, and really become a pro at administering medications. You guys can do this. It’s a lot to know, but this method can help you, all right. I want you to go out and be your best self today. Happy Nursing.