Gideon Cheatwood Nursing 204 Prof. Allen 09/02/23 Drug Guide Comparison One main difference that I happened to notice about my F.A. Davis drug guide versus the UpToDate drug guide experience was being supplied with many relevant articles based around the medication I was researching, in this case, morphine. The UpToDate site also lists all of the different dosage forms and names of the different brands of drugs while also including the ingredients within each brand of medication. UpToDate also includes the price of each brand of drug so that people searching around the UpToDate site like me can have an idea of how much it would cost to get morphine in a clinical setting. However, although the F.A. Davis drug guide includes prices and availability it isn’t as in-depth as the UpToDate version. The last big difference that I noted while clicking around on the UpToDate website was that UpToDate did not include Drug-Natural Product reactions such as Chamomile which can have a large effect on the patient and could even cause CNS depression. Besides the differences between the two resources that I mentioned above, both UpToDate and the F.A. Davis drug guide are both very similar as well. They both include information covering the action of the drug and how it works within the patient’s body and what effects it should have on them. They both also included adverse side effects to be aware of so that if any of them begin to take place, the individual knows that they should meet with a medical professional about the side effects. Another area where both drug guides are similar is the inclusion of the administration methods and the guidelines that should be followed for each route and dose of medication administered to each different patient. For example, both UpToDate and the F.A. Davis drug guides state that if you are administering morphine by IM or IV injection to an adult patient that weighs less than 50 kilograms, and they are experiencing moderate to severe pain, then you should only administer 0.05mg - 0.2mg/kg every four hours with the maximum amount being 15mg per dose. So, at the end of the day, both guides supply students and professionals alike with ample information about each drug that they are going to be receiving or administering and all the differing effects of said medication. However, there are a few differences that make my preferred guide UpToDate. The main reason why I prefer UpToDate when compared to the F.A. Davis drug guide is the orientation and ease of use when it comes to the organization of the guide on the website. It has everything nicely laid out within different categories and drop-down windows making it much less taxing and time-consuming for me to find the information I am searching for about certain medications. This can sometimes be more than just a simple preference in the clinical setting. If I have a patient in critical condition but need to quickly brush up on the guidelines for a specific medication before administering, it to them then I need a more streamlined process of research and that is the draw of UpToDate for me. However, if I am ignoring emergency situations or am looking to do more research-based assignments on a medication then I would prefer to utilize the F.A. Davis drug guide because it supplies more reliable amounts of popular medications and contains much more information about them if they are more obscure medications or even natural supplements. This makes the F.A. Davis drug guide much more informational to me, especially when I am looking into more obscure medications for treatment.
