Would You Give This Med? An interactive nursing pharmacology activity
Deciding when to give and hold meds is tough. This simple yes/no format activity provides the data and asks, “Would you give this med?” 💊💊
Clinical judgment around medication administration is an area where students struggle. We have all done a medication check-off where a student was not prepared. But the sheer volume of pharmacology information they have to sift through can feel insurmountable when caring for a patient at the bedside. We can allow them to practice this skill in a simple active learning activity called “Would you give this med?”
Why is this important
Students are faced with endless clinical decisions related to medication administration. Examples include:
Deciding whether or not to give a beta-blocker when the student has just obtained an abnormal blood pressure.
Knowing which lab value to monitor closely in an unstable patient with already grossly abnormal labs.
Looking at a long list of PRN options and deciding which will work best based on the assessment data they gathered.
At the most basic level, we can ask students, with every single medication administration or situation, “Is this safe?” This yes/no format translates well to practice where there is no grey area around giving or not giving a medication.
How to Implement:
Create a presentation in PowerPoint or Canva. Include some basic patient information, including the reason for hospitalization and history. It is essential to include both relevant and irrelevant information. Nurses need to be able to filter large amounts of data, deciding what is important and what is “nice to know” every time they look at a patient chart.
Include only one order for only one medication. Include assessment data that will help a student nurse decide whether or not to give or hold the medication. Here is a simple example:
This is a simple one, clearly a hold. I would highlight that NSAIDs carry a high risk of nephrotoxicity and this medication should be held based on her creatinine level.
Here is another example:
You can also include scenarios with grey areas. Is his blood pressure too low for a diuretic? What about his potassium - should a loop diuretic be held when he is clearly in fluid volume excess and the potassium can be replaced? Is the dose appropriate? Ultimately have students decide what they would do and discuss how they would know if it was an effective decision.
Don’t forget to include a normal example:
With any activity, it is great to throw in a normal situation once in a while. Students can get conditioned to look for something wrong or think that instructors are trying to trick them - when actually it is a simple “yes, I would give that med.”
And the best part - these slides were created in Canva and below is the link to download the template. You can easily start building your own today! 🎇
Variations:
While great for a clinical post-conference, this activity could also be used in theory courses to reinforce medication knowledge. These types of scenarios also make strong exam questions and could be used for alternate format items such as short-answer or true/false.
Best for:
No limits on this one! This one could really work anywhere.
Start Building a Would You Give This Med? Activity
Deciding when to give and hold a medication is challenging for students. We should offer them opportunities to practice this skill in theory or clinical. Using “Would You Give this Med?” is easy to implement, using the template provided and modifying it to include clinical situations related to the content you teach.
Do a quick brainstorming of common medications you see at your clinical site that require clinical judgment. Also, think about your own practice. This experience can be a rich source for unique clinical situations. You can easily add this simple activity into a lecture and start building your active learning library immediately. Remember, it doesn’t have to be a total overhaul. You can start with one activity at a time!