How are drugs classified nursing?
Drugs are classified based on their action or effect on the body or by their chemical characteristics. Nurses must be familiar with both generic and trade names of drugs. Controlled substances are categorized based on their potential for abuse and their prescribed uses.
What are the 4 classification of medicines?
The 4 Categories of Medication
- General Sales List (GSL) GSLs are a type of medicine that have few legal restrictions.
- Pharmacy Medicines. Pharmacy Medicines are only available to purchase behind the counter at a pharmacy.
- Prescription Only Medicines.
- Controlled Drugs.
What are the classifications of drugs?
DREs classify drugs in one of seven categories: central nervous system (CNS) depressants, CNS stimulants, hallucinogens, dissociative anesthetics, narcotic analgesics, inhalants, and cannabis.
How do you classify drugs?
For example, they can be classified according to:
- uses (medicinal or recreational)
- effect on the body (the specific effect on the central nervous system)
- source of the substance (synthetic or plant)
- legal status (legal/illegal)
- risk status (dangerous/safe).
What are the 3 classifications of drugs?
The below sub-section summarises the major classifications of drugs including stimulants, depressants and hallucinogens.
Which is an example of a drug classification?
2. Drug Classifications • Pharmacologic Classification – Similar Characteristics – Similar Chemical Make up – examples: Penicillins, Beta Blockers • Therapeutic Classification – Used for similar effect – May not have similar chemical make up – Examples: Antihypertensives, Antibiotics
Can a drug be classified in more than one class?
Based on these diverse classification methods, some drugs may be grouped together under one system but not another. In other cases, a drug may have multiple uses or actions (such as the drug finasteride, which is used to treat an enlarged prostate and regrow hair) and may be included in multiple drug classes within a single classification system.
What are the drug guidelines for a nurse?
These guidelines not only describe safe and effective drug administration practice, but also encourage nurses to follow local and national policies for drug administration, as most institutions will have specific guidelines for their nurses to follow. All drugs can be classified as either controlled or non-controlled.
How are drugs classified according to the ATC system?
To bring order to chaos, in 1976 the World Health Organization (WHO) created a multi-dimensional system called the Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical (ATC) Classification System, which categorizes a drug based on five levels: 13 Level One: Describes the organ system the drug treats. Level Two: Describes the drug’s therapeutic effect.