Introduction

This is the second edition of the Open RN Nursing Pharmacology OER textbook. This free online textbook is an open educational resource with CC-BY 4.0 licensing that has been developed for prelicensure nursing students. Affordable print versions are published in collaboration with XanEdu and are available on Amazon or can be ordered by college bookstores. A free printable PDF version is also available for download on the Open RN website.

This edition has been updated according to the 2023 NCLEX-PN and NCLEX-RN Test Plans, and additional NCLEX Next Generation-style learning activities have been added to each chapter. It is aligned with the Wisconsin Technical College System (WTCS) statewide nursing curriculum for the Nursing Pharmacology course (543-103). View a list of updates in the second edition here.

This book introduces the principles of pharmacology and discusses classes of medications and their effects on the body. Emphasis is on the use of the nursing process to safely administer medications. This book is not intended to be used as a drug reference book. However, links are provided for prototype medications for each medication class to DailyMed, a trustworthy U.S. National Library of Medicine website, that contains detailed information about drugs marketed in the United States.

The Open RN project is supported by a $2.5 million grant from the Department of Education and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. However, these contents do not necessarily represent the policy of the Department of Education, and you should not assume endorsement by the federal government. More information about the Open RN project can be found at cvtc.edu/OpenRN.

The first edition of Open RN Nursing Pharmacology won an Award for Excellence from OE Global in 2020. For more information about the award, visit the 2020 OE Awards for Excellence site.

The following video provides a quick overview of how to navigate the online version.