let's talk about all the different types of antibiotics these include vamin seyos Forin sulfamides or sulfa drugs fluroquinolones penicillin tetracyclines aminoglycosides and macroides before we dive into each medication class let's look at some tips for antibiotics in general it's important to know that anti biotics are used for bacterial infections only they are not used for viral infections or fungal infections you can remember this by the memory trick antibiotics are used for bacterial infections only you want to educate your patient to finish the entire prescription of antibiotics even if symptoms are improving just because they're feeling better doesn't mean the infection is gone and it can actually return as a stronger infection infection if the prescription isn't finished some antibiotics make oral contraceptives ineffective you can remember which medications by thinking penicillin bumps the pill and tetracyclines and sephos Forin require child care so you want to educate your patient to use an additional form of contraception while taking these antibiotics some antibiotics cause photosensitivity this means they increase sensitiv to sunlight and UV rays which increases the likelihood of sunburn and skin damage you can remember which antibiotics cause photosensitivity by thinking these patients should fear the sun f for fural quinolones t for tetracyclines and S for sulfa drugs so if the patient is taking the following medications they should wear sunscreen SPF 30 or above even if it's cloudy they should avoid direct sun exposure and they should protect their skin and eyes with clothing sunglasses and hats it's important to know that most antibiotics will cause GI upset this could include nausea vomiting or diarrhea the reason for this is because antibiotics attack all the bacteria in the gut they attack the bad bacteria and they attack the good bacteria so patient should be educated to take a daily probiotic this could be eating yogurt or taking a probiotic capsule both of these things help to maintain levels of good bacteria in the gut and limit GI symptoms another thing to note about antibiotics is you as a nurse should always obtain a culture and sensitivity test before administering an antibiotic obtaining a culture after an initial dose of antibiotics can alter the results now what is a culture and sensitivity test a culture is performed to identify the type of germ and infection the patient has after the bacteria is cultured a sensitivity test is done this identifies the type of medication which needs to be given to treat and eradicate the infection in other words which medication will the bacteria be sensitive to you can remember this by the memory culture think we are collecting data and sensitivity think we are searching for the correct medication to eradicate the bacteria now let's look at how a culture is done again this is meant to identify the type of germ or infection first you want to swab the infected area for a sample then you will place the Infectious material on a culture plate you want to allow time for the bacteria to grow now let's look at interpretation of cultures it's considered a positive culture if germ growth is present and it's considered a negative culture if no germ growth is present next is the sensitivity test which again identifies what type of medication needs to be given to treat and eradicate the infection you just cultured first thing we do is place the positive culture from our culture test and assess it under a microscope then you test different antibiotic medications to see what will work best for that specific infection the patient has now let's look at how to interpret a sensitivity test if the area has no further growth that means the bacteria is sensitive to the medication or in other words that specific antibiotic successfully stop the growth of the bacteria so that means that specific antibiotic would be successful to fight the infection the patient has now the areas that have growth means the bacteria is not sensitive to that antibiotic because the bacteria is still growing and that drug won't be effective to help treat and eradicate the infection the patient has so again a culture and sensitivity test allows us to determine which antibiotic will help treat the specific bacterial infection that the patient has and which ones will not treat it now when talking about the mechanism of action for antibiotics they will either be bacteriostatic or bactericidal antibiotics that are bacteriostatic slow or prevent the growth of bacteria where antibiotics that are bacteriocidal kill the bacteria you can remember this by the memory trick bacteriostatic think slows bacteria where bacteria Cal think side or SLE actually means killer you can remember which medication fall under bacterial CLE by thinking these medications slow everything tetracyclines macrolides sulfan amines and aromasin and you can remember which medications are bactericidal by thinking antibiotic pills Crush Fierce villains aminoglycosides penicillin seyos florins fuo quinols and vasin and lastly before we begin breaking down each class of antibiotics it's important to talk about super infections a super infection is a new infection that develops during the course of treatment for the primary infection what happens is that antibiotics are working to fight the primary infection the patient has the antibiotics kill the bad bacteria but they also kill the good bacteria and Flora in the gut so a decreased in the good Flora causes rapid growth of a secondary infection or a super infection a serious complication of a super infection is seiff this can present as severe diarrhea abdominal cramping and fever but there are some ways you can prevent a super infection you want to educate your patient to take their antibiotic with probiotics to maintain that healthy gut Flora you also want to educate them to finish the entire course of antibiotics and antibiotics should only be 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