Infectious Disease Section 5.3- Antifungal Agents
Real Life Pharmacology - Pharmacology Education for Health Care Professionals
Eric Christianson, PharmD; Pharmacology Expert and Clinical Pharmacist
4.9 • 773 Ratings
🗓️ 25 May 2026
⏱️ 17 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Fungal infections are commonly encountered across healthcare settings, ranging from oral thrush and vaginal yeast infections to serious systemic infections in critically ill patients. In this episode, we’ll review the major antifungal medications nurses should know, including azoles, echinocandins, polyenes, and topical antifungals. We’ll focus on practical nursing considerations such as monitoring for adverse effects, recognizing important drug interactions, administration tips, and patient education points. By the end of the episode, listeners will have a stronger understanding of how antifungal medications work and how nurses play a key role in ensuring safe and effective treatment.
You can find the full 16+ hour nursing pharmacology review course, including PDF handouts, cheat sheets, practice questions, and on-demand videos at meded101.com!
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | In this segment, I'm going to talk about fungal infections. |
| 0:10.2 | All right, so first off, we'll start with the nurse monitoring pearls here with antifungal |
| 0:16.6 | medications. |
| 0:17.6 | Probably the most common class is azol antifungals. |
| 0:23.2 | A few important points, really, |
| 0:30.5 | really critical. Drug interactions, SIPP450, SIP 3A4, and other SIP enzymes as well. |
| 0:36.3 | Really, really important to pay attention to drug interactions when you get a prescription for an asal antifungal. |
| 0:41.4 | QTC prolongation I'd put in that bucket as well, drug interaction. |
| 0:49.4 | And then rarely can cause some hepatic issues, so we may monitor LFTs and things of that nature. |
| 0:55.4 | Amphotericin B, tons of clinical practice pearls with that medication. |
| 0:57.3 | Rhenal function needs to be monitored. |
| 1:05.1 | Electrolites need to be monitored and clinically monitoring those patients for infusion-type reactions. |
| 1:06.3 | It's an IV medication. |
| 1:08.1 | It can cause an infusion-type reaction that causes fever and chills and low blood |
| 1:12.6 | pressure, and phobitis as well. |
| 1:15.8 | Super important to pay attention to that. |
| 1:18.6 | Obviously, when we're giving any type of antifungal, antiviral, antibiotic type medication, |
| 1:24.8 | we've got to pay attention to therapeutic response. |
| 1:27.6 | Is that infection what we're trying to treat getting better? |
| 1:31.4 | If it's not, definitely need to say something for sure to the provider. |
| 1:38.6 | Adverse effect profile for these medications in general. |
| 1:46.5 | Rash, GI upset, headache, |
... |
Transcript will be available on the free plan in 18 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Eric Christianson, PharmD; Pharmacology Expert and Clinical Pharmacist, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Eric Christianson, PharmD; Pharmacology Expert and Clinical Pharmacist and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.