FOP: Pharmacology
Drug action, kinetics, dosing, interactions, adverse effects, monitoring and safe paediatric prescribing. Recognise common paediatric presentations, make an age-appropriate assessment and select safe initial investigation or treatment.
How to prepare across FOP, TAS and AKP
Learn each paediatric specialty through three different lenses: common clinical foundations, underlying science, and applied clinical decision making.
Core concepts
Concept 1
Know common medicine indications, contraindications, adverse effects and weight-based use.
Exam cue: Identify age, acuity and the common presentation before selecting the safest first-line answer.
Concept 2
Apply pharmacodynamics, pharmacokinetics, receptor action and developmental pharmacology.
Exam cue: Know common medicine indications, contraindications, adverse effects and weight-based use.
Concept 3
Individualise treatment using age, weight, organ function, interactions, monitoring and response.
Exam cue: Check dose units, maximums, allergies, interactions and monitoring before prescribing.
Risk pitfalls and guardrails
Do not overcomplicate a common presentation with a rare diagnosis before checking age-specific red flags and first-line care.
Guardrail: Do not choose a plausible fact that answers a different exam lens or a different time point.
Do not transfer adult norms, doses or decision thresholds to a child without checking age, development and weight.
Guardrail: Do not calculate until weight, units, concentration, maximum dose and monitoring are explicit.
Do not infer a fixed Pharmacology item count from the published 10%-50% range band.
Guardrail: Do not calculate until weight, units, concentration, maximum dose and monitoring are explicit.
Memory anchors
FOP lens
Recognise common paediatric presentations, make an age-appropriate assessment and select safe initial investigation or treatment.
Pharmacology: foundation
Know common medicine indications, contraindications, adverse effects and weight-based use.
Pharmacology: science
Apply pharmacodynamics, pharmacokinetics, receptor action and developmental pharmacology.
Pharmacology: applied practice
Individualise treatment using age, weight, organ function, interactions, monitoring and response.
Pharmacology: safety check
Check dose units, maximums, allergies, interactions and monitoring before prescribing.
Checkpoint rule
Do the check-up only after you can summarize each concept in one sentence and identify one dangerous pitfall from memory.
Knowledge Check (after reading)
Short check-up to confirm understanding of this module.
Check-up Questions
A 20-kg child is prescribed paracetamol 15 mg/kg for one dose. The liquid contains 120 mg in 5 mL. What volume is required?
A child has immediate wheeze and hypotension after penicillin. How should this allergy be recorded?
Answer all questions to submit.
Next step personalized recommendations
Continue learning
Move forward only after this module is stable.
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