Sandbox:Calculus in Nursing

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Pharmacology

I work on a burn/plastic unit and pain control is, for obvious reasons, an important and never ending issue. Whether it be during dressing changes, physiotherapy or daily activities. The question is why can't we give certain combinations of opioids at the same time? Why do we have to wait an allotted amount of time until we

The answer to these questions all involve calculus.

First the concentration of the drug in plasma is measured, this concentration as a function of time, can be plotted and has the ability to tell you several important parameters surrounding dosing, scheduling, metabolism, even absorption. From this you can derive and predict the amount of drug left in the system after "t" amount of time. In the case of different methods of administration (intramuscular, intravenous, orally or subcutaneously, slow release tablets...), the absorption rate will differ, which in the end will affect the amount of time the drug stays in the system. Ie: you may be give a 30mg extended release morphine and instead of it peaking and lasting only d5