Pharmacology Specialty CE Courses for Nursing Professionals
Select your state to explore relevant courses related to pharmacology
Insights, case studies and more. Challenge yourself to deepen your expertise with this collection of advanced courses on Pharmacology topics.
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Pharmacology Courses
Addiction: When Patients Can't "Just Quit"
Course expiration date: 7/18/2021
This course covers the epidemiology, causes and risk factors of addiction. It discusses the diagnosis of substance use disorders and offers a brief overview of medications used to treat withdrawal. The course gives detailed information on the medications used to treat opioid use disorder, alcohol use disorder and tobacco use disorder.
Advanced Practice Nurses Guidelines for Safe and Effective Controlled Substance Prescribing
Course expiration date: 9/20/2022
This course provides an overview of the safe and effective prescribing of controlled substances for advanced practice nurses and all nurses who are responsible for the safe and effective prescribing practices for controlled substances. The course presents three of the most common disease states that warrant more frequent prescribing of controlled substances.
Antibiotic Resistant Diseases: New Clinical Challenges
Course expiration date: 7/8/2022
Anticoagulants and Antiplatelet Therapy
Course expiration date: 7/13/2021
This educational program illustrates the critical role of blood clotting in maintaining vasculature integrity and various pathologies that can result when inappropriate coagulation occurs. An overview is provided giving insight to the use of representative antiplatelet, anticoagulation and thrombolytic agents to counter improper clotting.
Care, Compassion, and End-of-Life Issues
Course expiration date: 4/9/2023
The principles of end-of-life care focus on providing the best possible care and emotional support for patients and families with compassion and respect for the dignity of the patient. This course presents information regarding standards and competencies of palliative nursing practice, body changes as death nears, physical comfort measures at the end-of-life, factors relating to advance directives, and cultural considerations when providing end-of-life care.
Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease: Identification and Drug Therapies
Course expiration date: 8/13/2022
This course provides a detailed review of the pathology, diagnosis, and treatment of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) for advanced practice nurses who have responsibilities that encompass all aspects of primary and specialized care.
Clinical Advances in Oral Antihyperglycemic Medication and Insulin Pump Therapies
Course expiration date: 11/20/2022
This medication rich course is for all nurses and advanced nurse practitioners responsible for prescribing oral antihyperglycemic medications and managing patients with diabetes. The course provides the latest in oral antihyperglycemic medications and treatment options, including insulin pump therapies.
Diabetes in Children, 4th Edition
Course expiration date: 8/1/2023
This course presents the complex metabolic, developmental, emotional, and social implications for a child with diabetes, both type 1 and type 2, and the family. The course discusses the unique considerations for this population to help the nurse provide supportive and flexible care. Also critically important is the nurse’s role in providing education to the parents or caregivers, as well as education appropriate to the child’s developmental level.
Dietary Supplements: An Overview
Dietary supplements of many types are widely used by Americans. As a result, it is likely that nurse practitioners in a variety of settings will encounter patients who use these products. The objective of this course is to provide an overview of dietary supplements.
Documentation for Nurses, 3rd Edition – N1882
Course expiration date: 10/31/2021
This course explores the underlying purposes of documentation, professional and regulatory requirements and processes, and best practices for adequate documentation to accurately reflect the patient’s severity of illness and transition for care.
Erectile Dysfunction (ED): Drug Treatment Options
Course expiration date: 8/28/2022
This course provides thorough information to promote the understanding of this condition. In turn, this will greatly contribute to their patients’ sexual health and quality of life. As primary health care professionals, it is imperative that APNs clearly understand the pathology of ED and steps to reduce its impact.
FDA Programs for Medication Safety
Course expiration date: 5/15/2023
This course provides an overview of available U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) medication safety information, including drug labeling, black box warnings, Medication Guides, Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategies (REMSs) programs, and available FDA medication safety communication and information for nurses and patients.
Management of Addiction, Withdrawal, and Overdose
Course expiration date: 5/18/2023
This course is beneficial for all nurses who care for the general population, particularly populations at risk for opioid misuse, addiction, and overdose. The course reviews common terminology related to opioid use and addiction, the basic pharmacology of opioids, the roots of the opioid epidemic, the theory of prevention model, and the unique points of potential intervention to help nurses prevent, identify, and treat opioid addiction.
Management of Drug Challenges: Generic vs. Branded Drugs
Course expiration date: 8/20/2022
This course is appropriate for all nurses and advanced practice nurses who have responsibility for managing or prescribing medications for select individuals. The course addresses the history of brand versus generic drugs, the many controversies, the science behind the preparation differences, and the cost effectiveness of preventative care when using generic versus brand name drugs.
Managing Polypharmacy in Older Adults
Course expiration date: 12/9/2022
This course presents the concept of polypharmacy, related definitions and concepts, its incidence, predictors of polypharmacy, consequences of polypharmacy, pharmacokinetic principles that relate to the elder population, drug classes and individual medications that cause the most risk, and evidence-based strategies to prevent and manage polypharmacy. Case studies are presented allowing for the application of concepts.
Maternal Newborn Nursing, 6th Edition
Course expiration date: 1/13/2022
The course provides information for nurses caring for women, children, and families in a variety of settings. The comprehensive content provides a chronological view of a woman’s journey from conception to post-delivery, the importance of self-care, care of the newborn, and how the nursing process guides the critical role of the nurse at each stage. Some content presented may be more applicable to nurses working in specialized clinical areas.
Measles, Mumps, and Rubella: Prophylactics and Clinical Updates
This course is designed to provide an overview of measles, mumps, and rubella. It covers important information related to their history, epidemiology, symptoms, complications, prevention, and potential treatments. Since the MMR vaccine product is proven to be effective in the prevention of all three diseases, its use will be described in detail adequate to facilitate its usage as a foundation of contemporary care.
Communicable diseases, once on the cusp of being eliminated, continue to show up in the United States (U.S.). This c
Medical Marijuana: Use and Indications
Course expiration date: 4/1/2023
This course presents the latest information about medical marijuana and is designed to help nurses understand its use, history, risks, benefits, and related best practices. The course is intended for educational purposes only and in no way, encourages, endorses, or supports the use of marijuana.
Naloxone: Understanding its Use and Effects
Course expiration date: 11/4/2022
All health care professionals (HCP) have a responsibility to understand the current opioid crisis and how they can contribute to countering this threat. All HCP who come into contact with patients have the potential to encounter individuals in danger of narcotic abuse. Awareness will facilitate an appropriate intervention. Those who may be more directly involved such as pharmacists, first responders, and emergency department personnel should consider more in-depth training. A thorough understanding of opioids, their misuse, and potential solutions to this public health issue will greatly contribute to improved patient health and quality of life.
New Clinical Guidelines for the Management of Hypertension
This course is intended to provide a hypertension treatment overview. Safe and effective prescribing decisions must be guided by an in-depth understanding of each agent: how it works, how to dose it, anticipated adverse events, drug interactions, etc. When combination drugs are included, there may be as many as 200 different pharmacological options (both individual agents, as well as combination products) that are approved by the FDA for treatment of hypertension. As a result, this course is designed only to highlight the major categories of therapeutics by identifying key products and characterizing them as a class. In an attempt to provide perspective, an effort was made to provide highlights of clinically meaningful outcomes studies for the various drug classes.
Nurse Practitioner’s Guide to Prescribing Controlled Substances – Focus on Opioids
Course expiration date: 8/24/2021
Appropriate prescribing practices are critical for all medications, but drugs that are considered controlled substances require additional attention. The Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), along with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), all have a role in determining the scheduling of prescription medications. As prescribers, it is critical that nurse practitioners understand not only federal but state requirements for prescribing all controlled substances. In addition, inappropriately prescribing opioids, resulting in their misuse and abuse, has led to many changes, including new safety and quality recommendations that must be considered. This course will provide a general review of federal and state controlled substance regulations and the prescribing of all controlled substances in general, as well as focus on clinical and safety considerations when prescribing opioid medications for acute and chronic pain not related to cancer.
Nurses’ Guide to Dietary Supplements – N1888
Course expiration date: 3/31/2021
This course presents nurses who work in ambulatory centers, private practice, pharmacies, hospitals, and community health facilities, with information to help develop practice guidelines and patient education materials about dietary supplements and participate in shared-decision making with people who are choosing dietary supplements for use in self-care.
Opioid Use in the Treatment of Chronic Pain
Caring for patients with chronic pain is both challenging and complex. This course provides details of the best practices for prescribing and managing pain when using opioids and related products. Federal and state laws are being updated and best practices protocols are being developed.
Pain Management: Principles and Practice, 3rd Edition – N1776
Course expiration date: 2/21/2022
This course presents current information about pain and nursing care for persons experiencing pain. The course will provide an understanding of the physiological mechanisms of nociceptive and neuropathic pain. Nurses will be able to describe pain assessment for patients across the lifespan and will be able to identify evidence-based assessment for patients whose cognitive impairment, age, or level of consciousness makes them incapable of reporting their pain. The course also provide an understanding of the pharmacologic and non-pharmacologic treatment of acute and chronic pain, as well as treatment of pain at end-of-life. With this knowledge, nurses will be able to both educate patients about pain and advocate for safe and effective pain treatment based on scientific evidence.