How does polypharmacy come about? •Unfortunately, as we all age our bodies start to grow old with us. Arthritis kicks in, consitpation, diarrhea, our hearts get worn, our kidneys get tired, we forget important things. In this day and age there seems to be a medication for everything and a commercial for all of them. Our doctors don’t seem hesitant to prescribe a battery of medications for our high blood pressure and cholesterol, for our bloating, and for our digestive issues. Those medications cause your hands to shake and you have dry mouth? Here’s another medication for your side effects. Can’t remember to take all those meds, don’t worry, you’ll get sent home with a giant med box and another medication for memory. Because as we …show more content…
Polypharmacy is characterized by drug duplication, interaction, or both. The good news is, you can prevent it yourself with a little education and preparation. Here are some simple tips for avoiding polypharmacy: 1. Always read labels. They may tip you off to possible drug interactions 2. Use only one pharmacy to fill prescriptions 3. Learn your medications by name and what they are for 4. Make a list of all your medications including pill strength and dose, as well as herbal products, vitamins, supplements, and over-the-counter drugs. Update it after every doctor visit 5. Carry your medications list everywhere. Bring it every doctor visit, along with the pill bottles 6. If you have more than one doctor, make sure each one knows what the other is prescribing 7. Ask your primary caregiver or pharmacist to run your medication list through a drug interactions database to identify possible problems, especially if you’re on five or more drugs 8. Avoid combination products such as cold formulas. Ask your pharmacist to help you find a product just for the symptoms you’re experiencing – not for every possible
Healthcare professionals must talk to their patients about possible side-effects of drugs they are taking and make sure they understand what can happen. In doing so, patients may start to understand why something is happening to them and it is a normal side-effect, which can not only lead to trust from the patients to providers, but can lead to the passing of knowledge from one to another which may prevent future
Micromedex is one of the electronic sources that will help me in prescribing medications. Micromedex medication instructions deliver a single source of evidence- based patient education materials. It provides customized medication information, easily understood by any patient, including indications, contraindications, usage instructions, precautions, interactions, storage, disposal and side effects for both prescription and non prescription drugs. This source provides health care personnel to benefit from the ability to quickly share information directly in the workflow, throughout the continuum of care.
Objective One During my clinical day three, I demonstrated entry-level competence in professional nursing practice in caring for patients with multiple and/or complex unmet human needs. I addressed safety needs, safety in medication administration, effective communication, and surveillance for my patients. First, I addressed safety needs my ensuring the appropriate safety measures were implemented for the patients. Some of the safety measures included, wearing non-skid socks, wearing a yellow armband which indicated fall risk, keeping the bed in lowest position, two side rails up, bed locked, and the call light within reach.
Medication adherence refers to whether a patient is taking their prescribed medication as directed. Many chronic illnesses can be fought of and beaten with the use of pharmacotherapy. However, many patients cease to take their prescription, which could happen for a number of reasons, ranging from the patient, to the physician (Brown, Bussell, 2011). This is a very big problem, as developing, manufacturing, and distributing drugs costs a lot of money, and even human lives, that will go to waste and be destroyed if people do not take their medications.
Medication errors can be very dangerous for the ones taking the wrong medicines or doses; therefore, safety measures must be in place. Administering them must be done with an understanding and focus. One missed check could have a staff member giving a resident the wrong set of pills. Some interventions to help prevent the medication error from occurring is to first report errors. When errors are reported, the main cause is to try and never let the error occur again.
Some, if not all, of these effects can be dangerous. Not being able to keep track of your medicine can be detrimental and potentially dangerous. You could not take your medicine or take it twice in one day, which can lead to dangerous physical effects. Safety issues is of huge concern due to the fact that they may be walking somewhere and then suddenly not know where they are or remember what they wanted to do and where they wanted to go. Sometimes, individuals may wander out of their house and end up in the middle of nowhere, not knowing where they are.
A percentage of the population doesn’t consider prescription drugs very dangerous because they are prescribed by doctors. Unfortunately, that's true and it is very concerning to other people who are aware of the problem. We as a community must help each other and inform each other about the effects prescription drugs have. These types of drugs develop addicts which can be treated effectively depending the type of drug they took. There are two main treatments behavioral treatment and medications.
According to Harvard Health, millions of Americans are not taking their “medications due to their high cost” (LeWine). Cost should not be the reason that people go without their medicine, something they need. Lack of medicine can lead to hospital trips and death. It is in this way that prescription drugs are similar to water. Those who take medicine are dependant on it, and absence of the drug can be disastrous, as lack of water is terrible for the body.
There are drugs to treat a wide spectrum of physical and mental disorders. Many tests have been done to to prove that there are harmful side effects from these drugs but very little has been shown as to what doctors are doing to fix these problems other than treating the immediate side effects. Doctors are aware
The problem is the fact that this drug is so powerful that too much of it could cause severe health problems, and many people are falling victim to these health problems. Many people use several medications at once,
Medication use is potentially dangerous. Polypharmacy is increasing, and makes it harder to keep track of side effects and interactions and of potentially inappropriate drug combinations. “The risk of serious consequences, hospitalization, and death due to medication errors increases with patients’ age and number of medications (Scand J Prim Health Care, 2012)”. For example, the GP is supposed to monitor the patient's regular medication, but does not always do so. Lack of monitoring and keeping track of patients’ medication use is a main cause when a patient is given inappropriate drugs.
Most people are not educated about the how and why their drugs work, so it could be easy for them to not take it for reasons such as they don’t directly feel the benefits of their medications, they are having adverse reactions but are not mentioning them to anybody, or they can’t remember to take all of their medications at the right times. I think one of the biggest factor could be remembering to take the medication at the right time, but also in my case my medications were not treating real problems so it was easy for me to forget. A patient may feel the same way, because their disease state may have not progressed to a state where the symptoms are not severe enough to make a change in the patients thinking. During consultation with a patient it is important to ask the right open-ended questions when doing a medication review. Instead of asking, “are you taking all of your medication at the proper times?”
In pharmacy practice, there are always multiple solutions for a single problem. Practitioner can suggest on the medication and dosage regimen, yet the final decision should lie on the hand of patient. (Robert J.C. et al., 2012) Most of the time, patient does not understand his/her own medical condition and medication plan, let alone making decision on it. Shared decision making, patient activation and broader patient engagement can significantly improve the treatment outcomes.
One of the pharmacist’s main goal is to provide individuals with knowledge about the medication they have been prescribed. If a pharmacist has 100% medical knowledge, I believe that an average person has roughly 5% knowledge regarding medication action, side effects, and contraindications. Most people only know what their
Second, another reason of forgetfulness is some kind of “medications” (4), that can affect memory, usually by causing sedation. Also, they can make it difficult to pay close attention to new things. Here are kinds of medications that may lead to forgetfulness: tranquilizers, antidepressants, some blood pressure drugs, antibacterial drugs, which means active against bacteria, and other medications. In conclusion, the aging time is the last period of the human life.