NURS 6521 Assignment: Pharmacotherapy for Gastrointestinal and Hepatobiliary Disorders
NURS 6521 Assignment: Pharmacotherapy for Gastrointestinal and Hepatobiliary Disorders
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Gastrointestinal (GI) and hepatobiliary disorders affect the structure and function of the GI tract. Many of these disorders often have similar symptoms, such as abdominal pain, cramping, constipation, nausea, bloating, and fatigue. Since multiple disorders can be tied to the same symptoms, it is important for advanced practice nurses to carefully evaluate patients and prescribe a treatment that targets the cause rather than the symptom.
Once the underlying cause is identified, an appropriate drug therapy plan can be recommended based on medical history and individual patient factors. In this Assignment, you examine a case study of a patient who presents with symptoms of a possible GI/hepatobiliary disorder, and you design an appropriate drug therapy plan.
To Prepare
- Review the case study assigned by your Instructor for this Assignment
- Reflect on the patient’s symptoms, medical history, and drugs currently prescribed.
- Think about a possible diagnosis for the patient. Consider whether the patient has a disorder related to the gastrointestinal and hepatobiliary system or whether the symptoms are the result of a disorder from another system or other factors, such as pregnancy, drugs, or a psychological disorder.
- Consider an appropriate drug therapy plan based on the patient’s history, diagnosis, and drugs currently prescribed. NURS 6521 Assignment: Pharmacotherapy for Gastrointestinal and Hepatobiliary Disorders
By Day 7 of Week 4
Write a 1-page paper that addresses the following:
- Explain your diagnosis for the patient, including your rationale for the diagnosis.
- Describe an appropriate drug therapy plan based on the patient’s history, diagnosis, and drugs currently prescribed.
- Justify why you would recommend this drug therapy plan for this patient. Be specific and provide examples.
Reminder: The College of Nursing requires that all papers submitted include a title page, introduction, summary, and references. The Sample Paper provided at the Walden Writing Center offers an example of those required elements (available at http://writingcenter.waldenu.edu/57.htm). All papers submitted must use this formatting.
Submission and Grading Information
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- Click the Week 4 Assignment Rubric to review the Grading Criteria for the Assignment.
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Pharmacotherapy for Gastrointestinal and Hepatobiliary Disorders
Abdominal infections could be associated with a wide range of clinical features, including abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea. In that regard, therefore, it would be easy to confuse one diagnosis over the other. This essay considers a patient HL case study presented with nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, the diagnosis made, and the treatment options are taken.
Diagnosis
Hepatitis C is a possible diagnosis for HL. This condition would appear asymptomatic, but when symptoms occur, they could be mild or even severe. HL symptoms, including nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea, are prevalent with hepatitis C infection. This condition could be caused by viruses, bacteria, or parasitic infections. The infection can also be found in contaminated food or water, while chemical agents have also been shown to be causative. The diagnosis can be made using tests that include serologic assays, which measure the levels of antibodies that are generated, and the molecular assays which would detect the presence of HCV RNA (Chalasani et al., 2018).
Appropriate Drug Therapy Plan
In this case study, the therapeutic options recommendable include Hepatitis C pegylated interferon-α (IFN-α), administered weekly. Additionally, the patient is put on a daily dose of ribavirin for about 24 to 48 weeks. The combination is effective in clearing the HCV genotypes, especially 2 and 3 infections. The patient should also be put on food therapy. It is recommended that eating a frequent balanced diet possibly prevents nausea and vomiting associated with the disease. The balanced diet should be composed of cereals, whole grains, vegetables, and even fruits. There should also be a moderate to high protein diet to heal the infected liver tissue (Venugopal et al., 2018). The patient should also avoid certain drugs like aminoglycoside antibiotics, sedatives, and acetaminophen, which are considered hepatotoxic in high doses.
Appropriate use of the proper diagnostic approaches forms the basis of diagnosis, which informs the kind of intervention to be taken. Viruses, bacteria, and chemical agents can cause HCV. The condition can be treated using pegylated interferon-α (IFN-α) and ribavirin.
References
Chalasani, N., Younossi, Z., Lavine, J. E., Charlton, M., Cusi, K., Rinella, M., … Sanyal, A. J. (2018). The diagnosis and management of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease: Practice guidance from the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases. Hepatology, 67(1), 328–357. https://doi.org/10.1002/hep.29367
Venugopal, V., Padmanabhan, P., Raja, R., & Dixit, N. M. (2018). Modelling how responsiveness to interferon improves interferon-free treatment of hepatitis C virus infection. PLoS Computational Biology, 14(7), e1006335. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1006335
Grading Criteria
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Week 4 Assignment Rubric
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Submit your Week 4 Assignment draft and review the originality report.
Submit Your Assignment by Day 7 of Week 4
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Week 4 Assignment
What’s Coming Up in Module 4?
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In the next module, you will examine types of drugs prescribed to patients with endocrine disorders, such as diabetes, and you will consider the impact of patient factors on the effects of these drugs.
Next Week
To go to the next week:
Module 4
Module 3: Gastrointestinal and Hepatobiliary Systems
Symptoms of various gastrointestinal (GI) and hepatobiliary disorders often overlap, making diagnosis and treatment challenging. For example, symptoms such as vomiting, constipation, and bloating are non-specific and could also be the result of underlying medical history or current prescription drug use. As an advanced practice nurse, you could be potentially responsible for providing care to a patient who may present with non-specific symptoms related to the gastrointestinal and hepatobiliary systems.
How would you proceed to care for this patient? What type of drug therapy might you recommend, not knowing current medical history or prescription drug use? Are there certain drugs you should avoid in ensuring a drug-drug interaction does not occur? These are the types of questions that may guide you in your role as an advanced practice nurse.
What’s Happening This Module?
Module 3: Gastrointestinal and Hepatobiliary Systems is a 1-week module, Week 4 of the course. In this module, you will examine diagnoses for patients with potential GI and hepatobiliary disorders. You also develop a drug therapy plan based on patient history and diagnosis.
Week 4: Gastrointestinal and Hepatobiliary Disorders
As an advanced practice nurse, you will likely encounter patients who will present with symptoms affecting the gastrointestinal (GI) tract. Of special note, is the consideration that most symptoms concerning the GI tract are non-specific and therefore, diagnosing diagnoses of the GI tract require thoughtful and careful investigation. Similarly, hepatobiliary disorders may also mirror many of the signs and symptoms that patients present when suffering from GI disorders.
How might you tease out the specific signs and symptoms between these potential disorders and body systems? What drug therapy plans will best address these disorders for your patients?
This week, you examine GI and hepatobiliary disorders. You will review a patient case study and consider those factors in recommending and prescribing a drug therapy plan fo your patient.
Learning Objectives
Students will:
- Evaluate diagnoses for patients with gastrointestinal and hepatobiliary disorders
- Justify drug therapy plans based on patient history and diagnosis