Recognizing Prescription Drug Misuse

Course overview

Many people take their medications as instructed. However, many people acquire drugs illegally, use drugs that have not been prescribed for them, use more than the recommended dosage, or misuse medications for purposes other than how they were intended to be used. The misuse of prescription medications alone costs the country at least $78.5 billion annually, according to the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control (Ryan & Rosa, 2020). Healthcare professionals need to be knowledgeable about the most frequently misused prescription drugs, trends in drug misuse among Americans, and the interventions being used to combat this epidemic in the U.S. healthcare system. The goal of this course is to equip nurses, pharmacists, physician assistants, and physicians in the acute care setting with knowledge about the misuse of prescription drugs, the most commonly misused medications, at-risk populations, and the interventions being used to combat the misuse of prescription drugs.