Practicals - Medication Management
Hey hey Caregivers,
I am so excited to be starting this series off with medication management. As a caregiver who has cared for individuals who take so many medications multiple times a day, I can honestly say I've experienced the exhaustion and burnout that comes with pill burden. I also know that medication management is extremely important for our care recipients and is instrumental in them having the best quality of life possible. Yet research has found that in the United States, 70% of people do not take their medications as prescribed (Omcare, 2021). There are so many reasons for this and I wanted to share a list of some of the most common ways that medication errors happen:
Simply forgetting to administer/take the medication (Omcare, 2021).
Forgetting to refill the medication when it is low, and running out (Omcare, 2021).
Caregivers having poor communication causes the medication to be missed or given twice (there is a much higher prevalence of this for children) (Neuspiel & Taylor, 2013).
Misunderstandings about the orders (Neuspiel & Taylor, 2013).
ex. knowing the difference between mg and ml
ex. with or without food or with or without another medication
Behaviors - sometimes it is just plain hard, maybe your care recipient does not want to take the medication and so adherence can be extremely difficult (Neuspiel & Taylor, 2013).
Tiredness, fatigue, and distractions while preparing the medications (Nichols et al., 2008).
If you've had medication errors, I don't want this article to cause any shame or guilt, I want the exact opposite. I want you to see that you are not alone, it happens to most of us at some point, and that is exactly why I am sharing this today.
Now I want to pivot a bit and talk about the impact of medication management on caregivers. There are so many challenges for us when it comes to medication management, such as:
A strict timing schedule to adhere to
Pill burden. When there are just a few medications to administer, it might not be too bad or too inconvenient for your routine. But when there are many medications, that need to be given at many times throughout the day, at a very specific time, this entire process can become very tiresome.
A significant amount of time it can take to order, prepare, administer, and clean up each medication (& doing so multiple times a day)
Not being able to administer the medication easily in public
Caregiver or care recipient not feeling comfortable taking the medication in public
Needing privacy and/or special equipment/environment to administer the medication
All of this to say, medication management is a leading cause of decreased social participation for caregivers and care recipients/those with many medications to manage. Have you experienced this? Maybe you've left an event early or rushed home from the store so that you can hurry to give medications on time. Or maybe you've said no to things because the timing of that event would be too difficult for your care recipient to receive their medications while they are there OR you need to be home to give them their medications. This is a significant challenge and dramatically impacts your quality of life. Social participation is one of the best protective measures against isolation and burnout, and having to sacrifice it routinely to ensure your care recipient is getting the best care possible is such a hard thing. To all the caregivers who have had to sacrifice so much to make sure that medications are able to be administered properly and do the hard work day in and day out for your care recipients - thank you so much.
So, what can we do to reduce medication errors and help us as caregivers gain some freedom to be able to enjoy social participation?
How to reduce medication errors:
Set routine alarms for medication times. This is especially valuable for medications that are not a routine part of their schedule.
Sign up for auto-refill programs with the pharmacy you use - many pharmacies have apps to make this even easier now.
Clearly communicate with other caregivers about who is giving the dose and that they gave it. This may look like using a medication tracking sheet to write down when the dose has been given, keeping a calendar and checking off that the meds have been, or even using a phone app to keep things organized.
There are lots of great apps that are available for medication management that you can do all the above things with. One great app is the Medisafe medication management app. In this app, you can schedule alarms and reminders for medicaiton, alerts to refill medications, check off when each medication has been administered.
Ask questions until it is extremely clear to you what the exact orders are. Oftentimes medications can be administed wrong simply because there was a miscommunication between the healthcare provider and the family. Ask all the questions.
Thanks for joining me for this long post today! Please leave a comment below with any of your tips and tricks for medication management.
Blessings,
❤️ Rebecca
References:
Neuspiel, D. R., & Taylor, M. M. (2013). Reducing the risk of harm from medication errors in children. Health Services Insights, 6, HSI-S10454.
Nichols, P., Copeland, T. S., Craib, I. A., Hopkins, P., & Bruce, D. G. (2008). Learning from error: identifying contributory causes of medication errors in an Australian hospital. Medical Journal of Australia, 188(5), 276-279.
Omcare (2021). Four Telling Medication Adherence Statistics (updated for 2022). Omcare. https://omcare.com/medication-adherence-statistics/#:~:text=Around%2066%25%20of%20people%20in,for%20those%20treating%20chronic%20conditions.