Understanding Pharmacology for Health Professionals simplifies the vast world of drugs and pharmaceuticals. It groups drug categories by therapeutic effects and the disease they're used to treat, while streamlining drug data through an A-Z Drug Reference and other resources. The fully updated 6th edition has been condensed into a 15-chapter text, to better accommodate a 16-week semester schedule and to let you focus on just one chapter per week. New "see-and-say" drug pronunciations, word part and meaning boxes, and enhanced activities help you engage with and retain the material.

About our author

Susan M. Turley, MA (Educ), BSN, RN, RHIT, is an experienced educator and practitioner in many areas of health care. She has a Master of Arts degree in adult education, a Bachelor of Science degree in nursing and national certification in the field of health information management.

As a nurse, Susan has worked and administered drugs in neonatal and pediatric intensive care units, physician office settings and a plasmapheresis center. She has also worked in an administrative capacity in managed care and long-term care, as a quality manager, health information manager, physician office auditor and infection control officer. She has also created physician credentialing databases.

As an educator, Susan has been an adjunct professor, teaching an introductory pharmacology course for students in the pharmacy technician, medical assisting and respiratory therapy programs at a community college. She also taught medical terminology and medical transcription courses there for many years, and she developed the bachelor’s and master’s curricula for the International Institute of Original Medicine. Susan was the co-leader for many medical transcription instructor training sessions, sponsored by Health Professions Institute. She was also a guest speaker at several seminars to prepare students to take health information management national certification examinations, sponsored by Stevens College.

As an author, she is known for clarity in presenting technically difficult material and for a special blend that includes humor and interesting anecdotes to stimulate learning and keep interest high. Students and colleagues alike have enthusiastically endorsed the accuracy and clarity of her textbooks.

Susan is also the author of Medical Language, 5th Edition (Pearson, 2020), as well as numerous medical and educational articles for national medical transcription journals. She has also been employed by physicians as an editor for articles submitted to peer-reviewed physician journals and for a chapter in an otolaryngology textbook for physicians.

To stay abreast of pharmacy trends and new drugs on the market, Susan subscribes to Drug Facts and Comparisons (Wolters Kluwer, 2021) and Drugs.com, and she participates in continuing education courses offered by Pharmacy Times. She is also a pharmacology consultant/editor for Nursing: A Concept-Based Approach to Learning, 4th Edition (Pearson, 2021).