drug therapy
Humans use all sorts of medications to treat all sorts of ailments these days. For instance, if you have a headache, you reach for an over-the-counter pain bill. During allergy season, you spray medication into your nostrils to combat pollen.
As there are increasing numbers of drug therapies being used, it is worth taking a moment to consider what they involve, and how you can be confident they are bringing positive benefits.
Also, how do healthcare professionals like Family Nurse Practitioners(FNP) make sure you are using approved drugs properly and with the right results?
Constant investment in drug therapies
Medical science is constantly researching how certain substances interact with our physical structure, functions, and chemistry. As the human body is so complex and highly individual to each person, this is no easy task.
Sometimes, a breakthrough in research and thorough clinical trials result in the formulation of a new or improved drug therapy. That means that a tablet, liquid, gel, or spray, for example, is safe for humans to ingest or absorb, and is proven to have genuine medical benefit. That must run alongside having only inconsequential or manageable side effects.
A big part of developing drug therapies is intensive work to gauge the correct dosage, of course. This may vary at different stages of an illness or depending on the age or even body weight of a patient.
There could also be optimal times of day or special circumstances that influence how effective (or potentially harmful) that substance is. For example, some drugs work better on an empty stomach and others can harm the human digestive system unless they are taken with meals.
The scientists behind each drug therapy would also investigate the timescale involved in a successful outcome. Does a drug work quickly, or would it need to be used for some time, due to an accumulative effect or slow healing process?
The potential for a drug to react badly when used in conjunction with a different drug therapy is also investigated, in the highly complex and lengthy research and trial phases of pharmaceutical development.
Of course, the repercussions of a drug therapy being used long-term would also be thoroughly considered in the context of possible side effects. This is one of the reasons that new drug therapies take so long to get to the approval and marketing stage.
Thousands of drugs have been approved for medical use in the U.S. You only have to browse a list of FDA-approved drugs to see what a wide range of health conditions these are designed to assist with.
In 2022, the FDA added 37 new drugs to the list. These are new treatments that are classed as novel, as they have not previously been approved or marketed in the U.S. That may not sound a lot, but it can take many years and a great deal of money, to get a new drug through its various development stages, and sufficiently proven to secure FDA approval.
Putting drug therapies into practice
Physicians and other prescribers study hard and engage in continuous professional development, to ensure they match medical conditions to the drug therapy most likely to bring a positive outcome. Including choosing which tablets, liquids, gels and sprays would be easiest for a particular patient to use successfully.
These days, within clinics, health centers, and other community-based health service settings, they are greatly assisted in this task by highly skilled Family Nurse Practitioners.
FNPs are often the health care professionals who develop an important relationship with individual patients, gathering information to help a prescriber make informed decisions about drug therapies. They would also work with patients – or their parents – to provide good advice and guidance on how to use drug therapies wisely and well and avoid either under or overdosing.
Advice on anything that could reduce the efficacy of drugs would also be dispensed, such as if treatment is compromised when the patient has an unrelated stomach upset.
FNPs receive a great deal of training to enable them to monitor and measure patients undergoing drug therapies. These advanced nurses would be constantly looking for the obvious and not so obvious signs that the drug is working as it should, or if the patient experiencing any effects must lead to a drug therapy review.
These vital health care professionals learn this range of professional and personal skills when qualifying to be nurse practitioners. That includes having their communication, observational, and decision-making skills enhanced when they do an online post-master’s FNP program. Though Carson-Newman’s Post-Master’s FNP Certificate is gained with 100% remote coursework, it focuses on all the knowledge and skills needed for drug therapy support and delivers a crucial clinical placement.
When drug therapy support is critical
Having the support of a well-trained and experienced healthcare professional can be especially vital if the drugs you are taking are for a life-threatening condition such as cancer or heart disease. Being able to discuss your treatment regime, can provide a great deal of reassurance, and help you to manage unavoidable side effects from those life-saving drug therapies.
If you are suffering from a long-term, chronic illness such as diabetes, nursing professionals such as FNPs can help you to self-manage your daily medical needs, including any complex drug regimens you need to be confident and competent in.
One of the other times of your life when you may need especially need health support from FNPs, is in your senior years.
It is good to know about aging healthy, including any myths involved. FNPs can explain such issues as why a balanced diet and regular exercise are vital as you get older. They can also help you manage your drug therapies when you need multiple treatments for different medical requirements.
Having this help and advice available can be especially important if you start to show the signs and symptoms that your various treatments are creating significant side effects. Your FNP and physician can then work towards adjusting or changing your medications, to get a similar outcome without the problems and issues.
This all illustrates how important FNPs are not just to individual patients, but also to the development of future drug therapies, based on the data and anecdotal evidence these health professionals provide.
