High-Risk Medicines

Course Overview

Do you regularly prescribe or administer medicines? If so, you must continually be on high alert for potential or actual medicine interactions. Start this Ausmed Course now to review why drug interactions occur, especially those involving high-risk medicines and how we can prevent them.

Topics

• What is a drug interaction?
• What are the consequences of harmful drug interactions?
• Which medicines should you always be on high-alert for?
• Practical strategies on how to monitor for and prevent interactions and unwanted effects, and much, much more ...

Need

Harm to patients from medicines remains an ever-present risk. Approximately 250,000 Australians are admitted to hospital each year as a result of medicine-related problems.

Untoward effects relating to medications are a sentinel event. As healthcare professionals are at the forefront of prescribing and administration they need to be eternally vigilant in their practice to stop unnecessary and preventable medicine interactions. Ongoing education about high-risk medicines and common pitfalls is essential for all health professionals.

Purpose

The purpose of this Ausmed Course is to draw the attention of registered nurses and other health professionals to regular medicines that are high-risk for interactions and prevent harm to patients.

Learning Outcomes

• Use in-depth knowledge of the difference between pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic drug interactions to support best-practice and reduce the likelihood of unwanted effects from medicines.
• A person in your care, who manifests signs and symptoms of an adverse drug reaction due to a drug interaction will be rapidly identified, assessed and appropriate treatment initiated.
• People in your care will receive correct evidence-based education about the purpose of their pharmacological treatment and risks associated with certain medicines.

Target Audience

Registered nurses and other healthcare professionals will gain confidence from undertaking this course, given the potential for harm associated with medicines.

Disclosure

No conflict of interest exists for anyone in the position to control content for this activity. Wherever possible, generic or non-proprietary names of medications or products have been used.

Educator

Louis Roller View profile

Dr Louis Roller has been an academic at the Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences at Monash University for over 55 years. He served on the Pharmacy Board of Victoria for 22 years and is the author of hundreds of scientific and professional articles. Louis was made a life member of the Australasian Pharmaceutical Sciences Association in 2012 and was awarded the life-long achievement award from the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia in 2014. He is a prolific provider of education for Ausmed and for the University of the Third Age. He was awarded an AM in 2023.