Davis' Drug Guide for Nurses

By Judith Hopfer Deglin

• I teach nursing, and this DAVIS Drug Guide for Nurses is a must-have for all my students as they learn how to professionally administer medications to their clients.
  
  All nurses should have a convenient system to use when the occasion arises that a nurse gives a medication that they are unfamilair with...I found that this DAVIS Guide is a quick and easy way to investigate the medication, it's indications, contraindications, nursing considerations and idiosyncrasies. Adverse reactions and normal dosing ranges are included for all medications .....
  
  There is also caution advised to prevent medication errors....near misses are always preferred over real errors any day. How the heart skips a beat whenever that happens!
  
  Nurses NEVER intend to make errors, and this book gives a cautionary tale in the beginning - to help professionals understand the grave seriousness of it all.
  
  It's never too late to buy an informative drug guide, and here I recommend this book to ALL --- professional or not.
  
  It's cruicial that all people who give medications or take them understand the actions of the medications comprehensively.
  
  The more one knows the more choices they posses.
  Before you pass the meds,
  pass the DAVIS Drug Guide!
  

• You can't go wrong with this fantastic drug guide! It is listed under generic names but if you don't know the generic name you can look up in the index at the back of the book for the trade name.
  
  I had a nurse/lawyer professor for my first year care plans and she wanted it all. This book delivered it ALL: classification, pregnancy catagory, indications, mechanism of action, contraindications and precautions, adverse reactions and side effects, interactions, route and dosage, availability, nursing implications and even potential nursing diagnoses! Also implementation, patient/family teaching and evaluation. Wow! I've been very impressed.
  
  It came through for me so I didn't have to go out and buy another drug book which is saying something! Davis's Drug Guide has even more in the back of the book with many appendixes including: recent drug approvals, additional drugs, combination drugs and opthalmic meds all that include class, indications, adverse reactions and side effects, route and dosage and contraindications and warnings.
  
  Appendix E is about natural/herbal products which is as thorough as the drugs that make up the main part of this book. There are pictures of the intramuscular drug sites, formulas helpful for calculating doses, routine pediatric and adult immunizations, recommendations for the safe handling of hazardous drugs, schedules of controlled substances, food sources for specific nutrients (ie foods rich in K, Na, Ca, Fe, vit K, vit D, low Na, foods that acidify urine as well as foods that alkalizine urine), and insulin and insulin therapy.
  
  Also throughout the book there is plenty of red lettering amidst the black for high alert warnings where drug overdoses have occurred in the past. The organized, easily found references in this guide could save your client's lives. Just because a doctor orders it doesn't mean it is ok to give, as a nurse we have to look it up and know the safe dose and contraindications and more and this book has it all! Highly recommended! Good luck all future nurses!