Where Drug Meets Device: A Pharmacist's Role in Mechanical Ventilation

Course overview

Especially in the era of COVID19, inpatient pharmacists (regardless of role or specialization) are seeing patients that are mechanically ventilated or have recently come off of a ventilator. The ability to have a basic understanding of the patient's ventilator course and apply this to the patient's current status and medication therapy is becoming an essential skill for all pharmacists. However, this topic is rarely taught in the standard PharmD curriculum and is likely only seen in PGY2 Critical Care programs. As such, a key gap exists for currently practicing pharmacists given the COVID19-related surges in respiratory failure. In this activity, the audience will gain a basic introduction to key terminology and concepts associated with mechanical ventilation. Then, a particular focus will be made on the pharmacotherapy specifically associated with mechanical ventilation and the therapy results after the patient has been extubated. From here, the pharmacist's role in optimizing safe and effective medication use practices associated with this device will be discussed so that every pharmacist walks away with a basic 'toolkit' for understanding this therapy.