NUR2407 Pharmacology Module 3 Medication Olympics, part A
NUR2407 Pharmacology Module 3 Medication Olympics, part A
NUR2407 Pharmacology Module 3 Medication Olympics, part A
You will be pre-assigned as a team to one of the following Units: Unit Four: Autonomic Nervous System Drugs; Unit Five: Central and Peripheral Nervous System Drugs.
This is a 4 week activity. You will stay in your team for each of the weeks that follow.
Prepare a 15 minute Summary Presentation for class to include the following:
Summary of the Unit/Classification
Minimum of three types of drugs or supplements
Typical routes of administration
Common side effects and adverse effects
Special considerations
Common Nursing interventions
Teams must distill the material to only key points. The presentation may be a Power Point, lecture and handouts, poster or any way the team feels they will best present the information. Use your textbook and Davis’s Drug Guide as your resources.
Teams collect points over the four weeks for their presentation. They are graded on their accuracy and thoroughness of their presentation as well as how well they worked as a team. At the end of the four modules, each team will be awarded an Olympic medal for the number of points earned.
Following your in-class activity, prepare your presentation for submission. Scan the materials if needed.
Nerve membranes, which are capable of conducting
action potentials along the entire membrane, send messages
to nearby neurons or to effector cells that may be located
inches to feet away via this electrical communication system.
Like all cell membranes, nerve membranes have various
channels or pores that control the movement of substances
into and out of the cell. Some of these channels allow the
movement of sodium, potassium, and calcium. When cells
are at rest, their membranes are impermeable to sodium.
However, the membranes are permeable to potassium ions.
The sodium–potassium pump that is active in the membranes of neurons is responsible for this property of the membrane. This system pumps sodium ions out of the cell and
potassium ions into the cell. At rest, more sodium ions are
outside the cell membrane, and more potassium ions are
inside. Electrically, the inside of the cell is relatively negative
compared with the outside of the membrane, which establishes an electrical potential along the nerve membrane.
When nerves are at rest, this is referred to as the resting membrane potential of the nerve.
Stimulation of a neuron causes depolarization of the
nerve, which means that the sodium channels open in
response to the stimulus, and sodium ions rush into the cell,
following the established concentration gradient. If an electrical monitoring device is attached to the nerve at this point, a
positive rush of ions is recorded. The electrical charge on the
inside of the membrane changes from relatively negative to
relatively positive. This sudden reversal of membrane potential, called the action potential (Figure 19.2), lasts less than a
microsecond. Using the sodium–potassium pump, the cell
then returns that section of membrane to the resting membrane potential, a process called repolarization. The action
potential generated at one point along a nerve membrane
stimulates the generation of an action potential in adjacent
portions of the cell membrane, and the stimulus travels the
length of the cell membrane.
Nerves can respond to stimuli several hundred times per
second, but for a given stimulus to cause an action potential,
it must have sufficient strength and must occur when the
nerve membrane is able to respond—that is, when it has repolarized. A nerve cannot be stimulated again while it is depolarized. The balance of sodium and potassium across the cell
membrane must be re-established.
Nerves require energy (i.e., oxygen and glucose) and the
correct balance of the electrolytes sodium and potassium to
maintain normal action potentials and transmit information
into and out of the nervous system. If an individual has
anoxia or hypoglycemia, the nerves might not be able to
maintain the sodium–potassium pump, and that individual
may become severely irritable or too stable (not responsive to
stimuli).
Long nerves are myelinated: they have a myelin sheath
that speeds electrical conduction and protects the nerves from
the fatigue that results from frequent formation of action
potentials. Even though many of the tightly packed nerves in
the brain do not need to travel far to stimulate another nerve,