co‐ordinator, community practice teacher and trust lead mentor. Carol has been a senior lecturer at Northumbria University since 2002 and has led several postgraduate professional programmes including MSc Education in Professional Practice (NMC Teacher programme), PGDip SCPHN and the Non‐Medical Prescribing programme. She has also undertaken national roles including Policy Advice Committee member and Treasurer for the UK Standing Conference SCPHN Education and subject expert for several quality approval panels and external examiner roles. Her key areas of interest and research are around developing learning and teaching and advanced level practice.
Barbara Wimmer BPharm (Hons), MSc (Clin Pharm), PhD. Lecturer.
Barbara brings together experience in community and hospital pharmacy and clinical research in Europe and in Australia. She worked in community pharmacies as pharmacist in charge and is an approved hospital pharmacist. Barbara has experience teaching pharmacology to nursing students and oversaw quality assurance in a hospital setting in Austria. Following on from her master of clinical pharmacy at the University of Strathclyde, Scotland, she returned to Steyr Hospital in Austria to lead the service for drugs information and clinical pharmacy. Barbara’s PhD studies at Monash University in Melbourne focused on factors associated with medication regimen complexity. She joined the University of Tasmania in 2016 and teaches clinical pharmacokinetics to undergraduate students.
Paul Younger MClinRes, PGCert (Medical Ultrasound), PGCE, BSc(Hons), BA(Hons), DipPUC, FCPara. Advanced Paramedic Practitioner. North East Ambulance Service.
Paul joined the North East Ambulance Service in 2002, completing his paramedic training in 2005. He has a master’s in clinical research from Newcastle University, a PGCE, and a postgraduate qualification in medical ultrasound. He studied non‐medical prescribing at Northumbria University, becoming one of the first paramedics in the UK to complete their training. He works clinically as an advanced practitioner for the North East Ambulance Service. A member of the College of Paramedics council and board since 2010, he has held various posts including regional and alternative regional representative for the North East, vice and deputy chair before being appointed as vice president in 2021. For his work with the profession and the college, Paul was made a fellow of the College of Paramedics in 2016. He has presented on paramedic practice at conferences around the world, including the UK, USA, Canada, Australia, Finland and The Netherlands.
Preface
The key aim of Fundamentals of Pharmacology for Paramedics is to provide the reader with an understanding of the essentials associated with pharmacology and paramedic practice so as to enhance patient safety and patient outcomes. This book can help readers improve and expand their expertise and self‐confidence within the field of paramedicine and enable them to recognise and respond appropriately to the needs of those they offer care and support to, wherever this may be. The contributors to the text are all experienced clinicians and academics who have expertise in their sphere of practice.
Pharmacology is the study of how drugs, medicines and substances work together with the body when they are being used for the management of illness, disease, pain relief and other conditions. This can be everything from drugs that are used in respiratory care to the action of medications used as a vaccine.
The paramedic scope of practice at the point of registration continues to be developed within pre‐registration programmes of study around the world, ensuring that the newly qualified paramedic has the required knowledge and skills to provide best practice healthcare to patients. In many countries, this also includes ensuring that pre‐registration paramedic students are ‘prescriber ready’ once they have successfully completed their undergraduate programme of study.
If undergraduate paramedic students are to offer care that is safe and effective, then they must be prepared in such a way that they become accountable practitioners who are able to carry out their role in a meaningful manner that adheres to professional standards and aligns with the law. Fundamentals of Pharmacology for Paramedics will help paramedics add to their repertoire of skills as they gain appropriate pharmacological knowledge. Whilst there is a need to ensure that emphasis is placed on the principles of safe drug administration in undergraduate curricula, there is also a need to ensure that students are provided with the pharmacological foundations associated with the bigger issues related to medicines management. Knowing how to study this subject effectively is about developing an effective workable learning strategy. Fundamentals of Pharmacology for Paramedics provides the reader with an overview of the key issues that can support them as they begin to understand and apply the complexities associated with pharmacology as well as the exciting challenges that are ahead of them.
The text integrates comprehensive knowledge of pharmacology enabling the reader to formulate a plan of care that can improve the overall health and wellbeing of the patient. When advising on and dispensing or administering medicines, this must be done within the limits of the individual’s education, training and competence, professional body guidance and other relevant policies and regulations. It is essential to ensure that you keep to the laws of the country in which you are practising.
The paramedic must know the names, mechanism of action, indications, contraindications, complications, routes of administration, side‐effects, interactions, dose and any specific administration considerations for a range of medications. They have to understand relevant pharmacology as well as the administration of therapeutic medications.
The chapters in this book offer a range of teaching and learning resources that can help you come to terms with the often complex area of pharmacology and paramedicine. The book can be used in a number of ways; for example, you may choose to read Chapters 1–7 first and then dip in and out of the remaining chapters as you need them. Trying to learn everything at once has the potential to cause confusion which can eventually result in a loss of confidence, affecting your ability to learn and assimilate. Avoid trying to learn large volumes of information and copious amounts of detail all at once; focus instead on only those details that can help you achieve your aims.
Often pharmacology modules, as part of the wider curriculum, will require the student to safely administer the appropriate medication, correctly monitor medicated patients in accordance with established protocols/policy, understand the drug’s mechanism of action, indication for use, routes of administration, how the drug is absorbed, distributed, metabolised and eliminated, contraindications, drug interactions and a lot more. Recognising each drug you use and learning the differences and similarities between drugs is key to understanding the fundamentals of pharmacology. Pharmacology is an important subject and it is vital that you effectively learn the various drugs, their categories, mechanisms of action, pharmacodynamics and pharmacokinetics. The 17 chapters in this book will help you come to terms with what is often seen as a complex and sometimes terrifying subject.
The paramedic scope of practice at the point of registration continues to be developed within pre‐registration programmes of study, ensuring that the newly qualified paramedic is fit for practice. The scope of practice for specialist, advanced and consultant paramedics is being defined and refined around the world. A sound understanding of the fundamentals of pharmacology related to paramedicine will help you attain the goals that you set today.
We hope you enjoy using this book as you develop personally and professionally. Having a detailed understanding of how drugs work and why they are given has the potential to help you become a great paramedic.
Ian Peate, London, UKSuzanne Evans, Newcastle, New South Wales, AustraliaLisa Clegg, New South Wales,
