Among medical care incidents in Japan, an increase in medicine-related errors by nurses have been reported. These errors may be caused by a lack of knowledge of clinical pharmacology and drug interactions. It is important for nurses to acquire risk-management skills based on clinical pharmacology. In order to improve fundamental knowledge in clinical pharmacology for nurses, various training programs exist. We reviewed a number of educational programs in medicine and report our results.
Based on our results, it is necessary for medical education programs to include the following 5 essential elements: 1)An analysis of frequently-occurring medication errors in the field of clinical pharmacology, 2) an examination of therapeutic drugs for patient treatment and patient observation practices, 3) an emphasis on the pharmacokinetics and drug interactions between s and food/ drugs, 4) assessment of patient symptoms and risk-management and the drug efficacy, 5) the necessity of using the package inserts.
Effective methods for teaching include case studies and group discussions.