Book excerpt: The 36th edition of the best-selling, original drug handbook for nurses provides complete monographs for more than 900 generic and thousands of brand-name drugs. Monographs are consistently formatted for ease of use and focus on the practical information that nurses need. Each monograph consists of generic and trade names, pronunciation key, pregnancy risk category, pharmacologic class, controlled substance schedule (if applicable), available forms, indications and dosages, administration (with drug incompatibities for I.V. drugs), action (including tables showing route, onset, peak, duration, and half-life), adverse reactions, interactions, effects on lab test results, contraindications, nursing considerations, and patient teaching. Also includes chapters on general drug information (pharmacology/pharmacotherapeutics, pharmacogenomics, safe drug administration, therapeutic classifications) and numerous appendices. Text is complemented by free Toolkit containing hundreds of online resources.