Immunosuppressants, which are also DMARDs (disease modifying antirheumatic drugs). Important nursing care and patient teaching for patients taking immunosuppressive medications. The following specific immunosuppressive (DMARD) agents: methotrexate, cyclosporine, and hydroxychloroquine.
Hi, i am cathy, with level up rn. in this video, i’m going to begin my coverage of immune system medications. if you have our pharmacology second edition flashcards, definitely pull those out so you can follow along with me. specifically in this video, i will be covering immunosuppressants, to test your knowledge of
Some of the key facts that i’ll be covering in this video. get into specific medications, i want to talk to you a little bit about immunosuppressants in general, because any time we suppress a patient’s immune system, it makes them more likely to get an infection because their immune system is not able to
Fight off those pathogens as well. so in terms of nursing care of a patient who’s on an immunosuppressant, we want to closely monitor their temperature, their white blood cell count. we want to limit visitors. we also want to limit fresh flowers or plants in the patient’s room. and then we want to provide teaching to
The patient as well to help them prevent getting an infection. so they should have really good hand hygiene. they should avoid sick people and crowds. they should make sure they get their vaccinations, make sure they cook their foods thoroughly. so this teaching and those nursing interventions all right,
Let’s get into specific medications starting with methotrexate, which is an anti-metabolite. methotrexate is used to treat autoimmune disorders such as psoriasis and rheumatoid arthritis. it is also used to treat certain types of cancer and to dissolve ectopic pregnancies. so its mode of action is that it causes
The death of rapidly replicating cells and also has an immunosuppressive effect in the body. due to that immunosuppressive effect, a key side effect with methotrexate is going to be infection. other side effects include hepatotoxicity, bone marrow suppression, gi upset, stomatitis, which is painful ulcerations in
The mouth. methotrexate also has a black box warning due to the risk for fetal death and fetal toxicity. so pregnant women are definitely not going to be taking methotrexate. we talked through some of the with protecting the patient from infection. other nursing care associated with methotrexate includes
Monitoring the patient’s liver function because of that side effect of hepatotoxicity, and also monitoring the patient’s cbc levels so the way we remember this medication and what it’s for in our little cool chicken hint on this card, if you look at methotrexate, you see t-rex in the name. so i think about a t-rex
Who has to move around very slowly because it has rheumatoid arthritis, and so it needs methotrexate in order to treat its rheumatoid arthritis. mnemonic to help everyone remember what in the comments so we can all benefit from it. next, we have cyclosporine, which is a cyclic polypeptide. it’s used to prevent
Organ rejection in transplant patients. it’s also used to treat autoimmune disorders such as ulcerative colitis, rheumatoid arthritis, and psoriasis. it works by inhibiting the body’s normal immune response. so key side effects with cyclosporine include risk of infection because it’s an immunosuppressive
Agent. other side effects include hepatotoxicity nephrotoxicity, gi upset, hypertension, and tremor. this medication carries a black box warning because it can cause the development of we’re going to do all the teaching and care to help prevent infection in the patient. we’re also going to closely monitor their liver
Function and their kidney function because of the side effects of hepatotoxicity and nephrotoxicity. also, if the patient is taking this because they received a transplant, they need to know that they will need to take cyclosporine for the rest of their lives. so it’s not going to be a short-term-type therapy.
Which became kind of famous during the covid-19 pandemic. hydroxychloroquine is used to treat autoimmune disorders such as rheumatoid arthritis and lupus. it is also used to treat malaria. include gi upset, vision changes, seizures, the number of granulocytes in the body, which is a type of white blood cell. so in
Terms of nursing care, we’re going to want to monitor the patient’s cbc levels during therapy, and we also want to advise the patient to take this medication with food in order to help reduce the gi upset that is common when taking hydroxychloroquine. first question, what is the key side effect that we need to know for
All immunosuppressive agents? all the nursing care and patient teaching patients taking immunosuppressive agents. agent is used to dissolve an ectopic pregnancy? question number three, what medication is used to prevent organ rejection in transplant patients? you did well with that quiz. if you got
And read the flashcards, do some repetition is where it’s at when it comes to pharmacology. i invite you to subscribe to our channel and share a link with your classmates and friends in nursing school. if you found value in this video, be sure and hit the like button, and leave a comment and let us know what you
Found particularly helpful.
Transcribed from video
Immunosuppressants/DMARDs – Pharmacology (Pharm) – Immune System -@Level Up RN By Level Up RN
