The Basics of Epidural Therapy for Smart Pump Library Development

Course Description

When tasked with building an epidural smart pump library, many pharmacists voice that they have received little education on epidural therapy and don’t know where to begin. Epidural practices are highly individualized, and it is imperative to involve anesthesia, nursing and pharmacy when developing a library for epidural use.

To aid with the process, this brief presentation was designed to provide a primer on the basics of epidural therapy and smart pump library development. Topics covered include definitions, terminology, routes and a limited literature review of medications and dosing.

Objectives

Upon completion of this course, the participant will be able to:

• Define and differentiate routes of administration associated with anesthesia therapy, including epidural, intrathecal, peripheral nerve block and combined spinal- epidural
• Describe delivery modes commonly used for epidural therapy
• Discuss examples from published references of medications and dosing regimens used in epidural therapy

Course Length