Medications play a vital role in the treatment of various medical issues, especially for the elderly care and child healthcare. Having the relevant prescriptions and the medical administration in place eliminates or reduces the patient’s symptoms to enhance the quality of life.
However, the results of medications differ from one patient to the other. Maintaining a medication plan and following appropriate medication management measures in home nursing has proven to work the best to maintain the positive health status of the patients. This blog discusses key aspects and the importance of medication management in home nursing, with its applications in detail.
What is medication management?
Medication management is defined as the extent of treatment that includes a defined procedure of medication administration. This involves the role of a qualified nurse/healthcare provider through the basic assessment of the psychotropic medications of the patient, provisions of the prescription, and ongoing monitoring of the use of medications.
To be precise, medication management involves the monitoring, reconciling, and evaluation of medications to ensure that the patients receive the expected outcomes. This needs a detailed review of the prescribed medicines, the potential side effects of drugs, and efficient monitoring of their safety and efficacy standards.
Why should healthcare providers focus on medication management?
Having proper medication management in place requires the nurses to partner with doctors and make sure the medicines work as stipulated and the symptoms get addressed with them. Once the health status of the patient changes, the nurse should discuss this with the doctor immediately, which helps the care team to modify medication based on the patient’s condition. Improper use of medications can result in:
- Side effects
- Memory loss
- Confusion
- Increased health risks
- Re-admissions to hospitals or healthcare facilities
Consider the situation of certain patients who take medications which no longer benefit them or require a prescription for the present situation. The regular evaluation and monitoring of the medications ensure that no two or more medications would result in negative interaction, or cause side effects which degrade the patient’s quality of life.
Medication management aims at bringing desired outcomes for the patient through an understanding of how the medication regimen impacts their well-being. While most patients struggle to get medications on time with relevant dosages, it’s important to have knowledgeable health professionals who can observe the patient closely for any side effects and drug interactions that impact the recovery negatively.
Importance of medication management in home nursing
Avoid side effects:
Through medication management, the experts adopt the necessary time to understand the conditions of patients and the related symptoms from the prescriptions of the medications. Medication management avoids the development of the side effects such as dementia which usually develops with drug interactions. Though the doctors provide the correct prescriptions, the patients might also experience side effects and health complications with the medications.
Maintain medication schedule:
Even when the doctor prescribes medications as per a schedule for patients to recover from a health concern, they might not follow it completely. Some elderly patients would also take doses in low or high amounts which might not benefit them as required.
Prevent undesirable medication combinations:
If the patient has many doctors to treat from various specialities who are not connected to each other, then the combinations of medications prescribed could produce undesirable effects on health. The healthcare provider should engage in medication management to avoid such concerns.
Get insights on dosage alterations:
If the patient doesn’t experience positive health and finds it gradually declines; the prescriptions might need alterations or changes. Certain patients need schedule changes they follow to take the medications as required. With help to adjust the dosages and maintain a proper schedule, healthcare professionals ensure appropriate medication management to bring patients the desired results.
Medication management for elderly care in home nursing
Older people and senior citizens require home care services the most. Since they have a long-term health condition to cure and care for, it is important to have medication management at home to take care of their health for a longer period. In case they are unable to take the medication as per the prescribed dose, time, etc. they usually need home nursing experts to help them with the timely medication at home.
If the families or other near ones are unable to manage the elders at home due to work, career or other personal reasons, the home care service providers and nursing staff help them with the effective framework to provide the best results to the elderly care through unparalleled care responsibilities.
Through proper medication management for seniors, the home health care services comply with the secure working practices to maintain appropriate health medication administration. Modern medication management for IV therapy in home nursing is also made possible with the help of nursing staff for the best care.
Healthcare experts also adhere to fundamental medical standards and quality standards to help patients receive proper home care treatment for elderly patients. This also helps them receive proper communication and medical support with the help to get through the health concerns that grow with age. The services that deal with medication management for physiotherapy in home nursing help adults to survive it’s after effects quickly.
Medication management for child care in home nursing
Children are susceptible to various medication risks when compared to adults. In such cases, the families encounter issues including the bad health of children and frequent admissions to hospitals. Healthcare staff should understand that the own actions of families and patients can lead to possible harm from untimely or undesirable medication.
To overcome these medication management challenges for children in home nursing, the nurses should join hands with the families to minimize the risk of harm and help the patients receive the maximum benefit through medicines. To provide the best advice to families on treating children, reporting and analyzing the errors of medication given to children and informing the safety incidents are essential to make sure home nursing solutions for children are the best.
Medication management for baby care in home nursing
Over time, babies and infants need to have medications followed to ensure good health and growth. The healthcare providers handle these medications at the right time and make sure the babies receive relevant medicinal doses at the right time. Here are some important things to note while performing medication management for baby care in home nursing:
- Stop giving medications once side effects are visible.
- Use an accurate dosage spoon or medicine dropper for babies.
- Keep the utensils and spoons sterilized.
- Maintain a record of the medications received and yet to be taken.
- Try storing the medications in the original container itself.
Best practices for medication management in home nursing
While a patient takes multiple medications, it’s essential to manage the dosing schedule in a way it makes it easy to follow. Following the wrong dose of medication and the wrong schedule leads to dangerous health concerns.
If you take the case of elderly individuals, at least 40% take drugs without the knowledge of the General Practitioner, paving a way for risks. To ensure proper medication management, healthcare providers need to follow these best practices for medication management in home nursing:
Clearly follow instructions of doctors
If a patient has to follow the medication, then it should adhere to the doctor’s prescription. While some patients would go for lower doses of medicine to minimize the drug costs or exceed the use to reduce pain and related symptoms, this isn’t the best solution to follow.
Get the refills in advance
Running for medications right during the run-out is not a good idea to follow. If you fail to fetch the medications at the right time, this can cause negative health outcomes in the patients. Hence, it’s important to get refills done early. Also, the nurse should check for the expiration date of the drug and get fresh refills even if there are some pills left for use.
Take note of the development of new symptoms in case of new medications
It may take many hours, days, or even weeks for patients to develop the consequence of new medications when they interact with other drugs, called polypharmacy. Dome patients might also develop side effects even if the medication does not react with the other drug. Whenever patients develop new symptoms once the drug is introduced, the caregivers should make a request to the doctor for a change in the prescription representing the problem caused by the medication interactions.
Add a medication reminder note to stick to the routine
Having medications should be a routine, especially for elderly patients. Keeping a timer on a mobile phone, and posting reminders on the doors or refrigerators can help avoid the chances of breaking the schedule. A healthcare provider ensures that patients have medications at the right time.
Utilize pill dispensers
Pill dispensers have multiple compartments dedicated to every day of the week. These pill dispensers are highly valuable if the patient needs to take many pills at different times of the day. A good pill dispenser also helps the caregiver to understand whether the patient has taken the pills as required for the day or not.
Keep a list of the patient’s current medications
Every patient needs to have a list of medications for emergencies or needs to carry it along while consulting doctors. The caregiver should ensure that the list includes the generic and brand names of the drug, dosage and schedules prescribed along with the reason for medication. This list is the best to avoid confusion among doctors and make it clear that the patients have to consult various factors for different treatments. Also, the doctors can check quickly if the patient’s symptoms might be related to any side effects or negative drug interactions.
Conduct a yearly medication management checkup
Considering an annual review of the medications patients need to receive is essential while taking the patients to the doctor to scrutinize them for any potential negative impact due to drug interactions. As people get older, their physiology changes and the body starts reacting differently to the medications they have consumed in the past. Hence even after years of change in the medications, the patients need to have medication review scheduled once a year.
Collaborating with healthcare professionals for medication management
Here are the medication management tips for adults in home nursing and the tricks to make medication management effective at home also for children, babies, and senior citizens:
Healthcare staff should perform the following:
- Support the creation of appropriate home care medication schedules to ensure appropriate medication management.
- Assess the home care medication to retain the patient’s health.
- Create a complete list of prescriptions and medications which the patients need to take.
- Develop an understanding of side effects, dosage and frequency of the medications.
- Examination of response and effectiveness to the medications.
- Establish communication with doctors to make sure patients get the best possible results.
Wrapping Up
A single medication error can result in critical adverse reactions to human health. This could be in the form of a stroke, heart attack, or death. In most cases, the families would find unable to focus on the medications of the patient due to the behaviour of the work, not being able to be physically present near them, or having some other personal concerns. In such circumstances, collaborating with healthcare professionals for medication management is the ideal solution to follow.
With the most critical aspects of medical management covered, Lana Life Care has registered nurses and healthcare experts to keep medication administration relevant to adhere to doctors’ prescriptions. This range from organizing medicines to providing alerts on medications to keeping patients on track.
Through quality healthcare at home, Lana Life Care focuses on providing compassionate and best UAE healthcare services in the comfort of your home. Our licensed healthcare providers are committed to providing the finest range of home healthcare solutions, including injection services, pain management nursing, wound care nursing and many more; while also adhering to stringent medical policies and standards.
