When giving medications, nurses always ensure the safety of the patients. Drug guides enable us to quickly check a drug’s action, indication, and nursing considerations related to it.
However, drug guides tend to be bulky, and we don’t always have the time to search page by page for a certain drug.
This is when online drug guides for nurses come to the picture. They aren’t only portable but also generate results almost instantly since you can access them using your mobile phone.
Now you can know more about a certain drug anytime and anywhere.
Here are ten of the best free drug guides for nurses online that you must consider:
1. Drugs.com
This site provides a variety of information about most prescription and over-the-counter medications. The details that it provides include the ingredients of the drugs, drug interactions, side effects and all other helpful information. It provides high quality information that nurses can always use.
2. Davis’s DrugGuide
This online drug guide provides research-based information about drugs, including their uses, side effects, interactions and even some nursing implications. It’s great for nurses as it contains drugs’ nursing focus, interventions and other helpful information. It offers customizable bookmarks too, so you can be as organized as you like.
3. DrugDigest
This interactive online drug guide offers a variety of valuable information about medications, their possible side effects and drug interactions. It has many tools that may be of help to nurses who will be needing information about drugs, their ingredients and even about their dosage.
DrugDigest also offers quizzes that ordinary users can take to know more about symptoms of a disorder and whether they need to be discussed with a healthcare provider.
4. RxList
RxList has a lot to offer, from excellent evidence-based drug information to pill images and a drug dictionary. The information on medications can be found through an alphabetical list of drugs or by searching for the drug using the search bar. There are other tools that will definitely come in handy especially during nursing clinicals.
5. PDR.net
This online drug reference is one of the most trusted online drug guides. It provides a wide range of information about medications including descriptions, indications, side effects and warnings. It also comes with drug ratings and reviews which could be of help to nurses as well as patients in so many ways.
6. MIMS
Just like any other online drug guides, this site will help you learn more about a certain drug, its uses, side effects, indications and drug interactions. The best thing about this site is that it is very efficient, organized and easy to use.
7. Medscape
If you are one of those few nurses who are interested in learning more about specific drugs, be it over-the-counter or prescription medications, then this is the site for you. This online guide is a source of updated drug information, including tools that are highly efficient and essential.
8. DrugLib
Aside from providing a wide range of information about drugs, this web drug reference also offers a variety of interesting data on pharmacology and the like. There are quizzes, ratings and reviews that will be very helpful in recognizing drugs as well.
9. SafeMedication
This online drug guide contains up-to-date and easy-to-read information on more than 12,000 FDA-approved drugs. They offer a user-friendly database that is not only highly informative, but very effortless to use as well.
10. DrugBank
This site offers comprehensive information of over 7000 drug entries. They provide even the structure and the different chemicals that the drugs may have. This online drug guide is best for nurses who want some in-depth information about medications.
These online drug guides are very efficient especially in helping nurses acquire certain information about medications. We all know that nurses attend to patients’ needs everyday, and that means we don’t just take care of people, but we make sure that they take the right medications on time as well.
If you know of other online drug guides that could benefit nurses, please share them with us here!
About the Author: Mary Elizabeth Velarmino Francisco earned her Bachelor of Science in Nursing Degree from the Ateneo de Zamboanga University, Philippines. She is always happy to share her passion for writing and blogging. With coffee running through her veins, she enthusiastically battles each day, one article at a time.