Walkthrough: Pharmacological and Parenteral Therapies Q3 – NCLEX-RN®

00:02 The nurses providing education to clients with a diagnosis of Parkinson's disease and their families.

00:07 When providing education about the medication carbidopa-levodopa, which statement will be included in the teaching? Select all that apply.

00:16 Okay, let's break it down.

00:18 So I'm a nurse providing education to clients and their families.

00:23 Now, the clients are diagnosed with Parkinson's disease.

00:25 So when I'm providing this education about carbidopa-levodopa.

00:30 Alright, so when I see a medication written like that, remember, it's always the generic name and NCLEX.

00:35 And you got that slash in the middle, which means two drugs have been combined together.

00:40 So this is carbidopa-levodopa.

00:43 Which statement will be included in the teaching? Select all that apply.

00:48 So here you go. Here's your answer choices.

00:51 Now I want you to write down 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.

00:54 And ask each one of those answer choices as if they were a yes, no, true, false question.

01:01 And repeat the topic of that question each time.

01:04 Pause the video, make your selections, and then we'll come back and walk through it together.

01:17 Welcome back.

01:18 Hey, hang in there on these questions.

01:20 It really matters that you take your time and treat every one of those answer choices as a separate question.

01:28 So we're talking about levodopa-carbidopa.

01:31 So, what I educate the patient, number one.

01:35 Adverse effects include drowsiness.

01:39 Note. Not with levodopa carbidopa.

01:41 They might have some weird dreams or trouble sleeping, but this medication does not make a client drowsy.

01:48 So number one, that one's out.

01:50 Number two.

01:52 Dyskinesias can develop from the medication.

01:55 So, can dyskinesia is developed from the levodopa-carbidopa? Hey, the sad news is they can.

02:01 I would select number two.

02:04 That's what's really one of the difficulties in treating Parkinson's disease.

02:08 Because dyskinesia is more that's difficulty in movement.

02:12 Dyskinesia can come from a progression of the disease, or the medication.

02:18 So it takes a lot of communication between the healthcare provider and the patients and families to identify, is it the medication? Or is it a progression of the disease? So number three.

02:30 Drug effectiveness may begin to diminish after a year.

02:35 You know, I seem to remember something about those meds to...

02:43 your right, if that's what you were thinking when you took the question. That's true.

02:47 Unfortunately, levodopa-carbidopa the effectiveness can wear off after a period of time.

02:53 But luckily, it's not just after a year.

02:56 Usually you're going to see this at about the three to five year mark.

03:00 So number three.

03:02 No, that wouldn't be accurate teaching.

03:05 Number four.

03:06 Clients and family should monitor for changes in behavior.

03:09 Sadly, yes.

03:11 Levodopa-carbidopa can cause behavior changes in the client.

03:16 They can become more irrational, maybe more angry.

03:19 So, they need to watch for that and then communicate with their healthcare provider to come up with a plan.

03:25 Number five.

03:26 Carbidopa helps slow the breakdown of levodopa.

03:30 That is actually true.

03:32 That's why they're now put together.

03:34 When you combine carbidopa and levodopa, carbidopa can act like the defender, right? So it's helping more of the levadopa get over the blood brain barrier, instead of getting eaten up in the stomach, your peripheral tissues.

03:49 So, number five.

03:50 Carbidopa does help slow down the breakdown of levodopa.

03:55 So you want to make sure those are given together, you can give a much smaller dose of levodopa and get a bigger response in the brain.

04:02 And that's what we're looking for.

04:04 So did you get it? How'd you do? Two, four, and five are the correct answers.

04:10 Remember, celebrate the work you put in on this question, make note of anything that was new to you information in the rationale.

04:18 Think about how we slice through each one of those answer choices to determine if it is correct or incorrect.

04:26 What strategy can you take from this question and how we walk through it and apply it to another question.

04:33 Those are the types of things you want to ask yourself, that's called metacognition, thinking about your thinking and you are the expert in your own brain and mindset.

04:45 That's it.

04:46 We're ready to go on to the next question.