Elderly To Polypharmacy Research Paper

Despite all of the on top of, it's going to appear that giving patients medication isn't a very troublesome task, but it's one with life and death implications. According the U.S. Food and Drug Administration medication

There are several types of medication, each has a purpose and function needed for their administration via the different routes.

There are several legislations in place with protocols for the administration of medication which I have listed below. The main policy re admin of drugs and storing of drugs and medicines is the Control Of Substances Hazardous to Health or COSHH but along with this there are other policies in place as per the list below.

patients follow directions and be aware of potential interactions with other drugs. Don’t just change your dose without discussing with your doctor first. Never use another persons prescription.

It is extremely important to make sure the individual takes their medication and does not give it to others as they do not take it. It may make their condition worse. Also if they give their medication to somebody else it may make the individual poorly or it could react to their own medication and cause serious issues that could potentially lead to death.

The route of drug administration chosen might be dependent on a person's age because of its variants on the effects of the drugs used on them. For example, a child usually has a hard time swallowing pills so they instead would drink their medicine, it is one of those factors that would lead us to alternatives. It is the same for pregnant women and the elderly that have different effects on them, so they would have different routes of drugs.

The subject for the Polypharmacy in Older Adults interview is an 86-year-old female whom was interviewed in her private residence. For the purposes of confidentiality, we will address her by the name “Janet” throughout the study. Her present and past medical history includes, autoimmune hepatitis with severe cirrhosis of the liver, a cerebellar stroke at age 75, and a history of complete heart block requiring pacemaker insertion.

This can cause an elder person to overdose and experience so or many of the risks that was mentioned above depression poor health etc. polypharmacy can also cause an elders death because many of those risks that I mentioned above of not treated early it can develop and eventually kill the person especially heartaches and seizures. In conclusion, polypharmacy has very dangerous effects on an elder adult body and can cause many problems such as depression anemia poor health and can eventually cause deaths. Not only does it pose a great risk to elder adults it also poses a great risk to the health industry because they are prescribing these medicines and if to many deaths occur from these elder taking the medicines, it will cause other people to not fully trust them and probably stop taking their medicines. To prevent this doctor can check the patient and see how much they are taking and the strength of each medicine to know how if they need to prescribe the patient more medicine or to know to give the patient a medicine that is not as strong so it do not affect the patient are cause any greater

There are several risks associated with medication use but especially with polypharmacy, such as adverse effects, medicine-medicine and medicine-disease interactions, decreasing adherence to medicine therapy or errors in the actual use of the medicines (Walckiers, Van der Heyden & Tafforeau,

Mr. Basset is an 80 year old man who is widowed. His wife did most of the cooking and now with no one available to cook meals for him, he is not receiving his daily average of vitamins and nutrients. Also, due to the chemotherapy and medications Mr. Basset is receiving, the interaction of food and drugs is contributing to his malnutrition. There are multiple effects with food and drug interactions that can affect elderly patients for example, loss of appetite, prevent medications from working, cause a side effect to get worse or cause new side effects. Lastly, because Mr. Basset has complained about his ill-fitting dentures, this as well is a reason to his malnutrition. It makes it harder for Mr. Basset to chew and swallow his food.

This assessment impacts significantly on my understanding about Kate. This provides me far more holistic view to assess her and shows a way to create a comprehensive nursing plan. I, for example, just focused on her physical and mental conditions and her medications, and did not focus on how to effectively use other supports, including carers and community supports, such as cardiac rehabilitation programs, pulmonary rehabilitation programs (Harvard Medical School Health Publications Group 2013, p. 3). After creating the map, I recognised several unrecognised factors which are useful and accessible community support programs and potential risks, such as fall risks and the effects of polypharmacy. All of them can improve not only physical functions,

It has led to an increase of emergency department visits, hospital readmissions, and even death in the elderly. According to the Nursing Manual of the Saskatoon Health Region, there are policies to provide correct medication administration “to ensure patient safety when preparing and administering all medications” (2014). For this to be successful, all health care professionals must understand the reason for the medication being given, the therapeutic effect, any side/adverse effects, and assessments to be completed prior to administration (2014). The Saskatoon Health Region also states that “if sending medications home with the patient, ensure the patient understands how and when the medication is to be taken” (2014). As stated above, this was one reason for polypharmacy in the geriatric population to have harmful outcomes. It is the responsibility of the health care provider to educate the patient with proper medication teaching (indications of the medication, proper dosage, and any adverse effects that could occur). If all of these aspects were performed and shared with the patient, it could drastically decrease the negative effects of

older adult, usually over the age of 65 (citation). Polypharmacy can occur in multiple settings, like in home, at the hospitals, and in acute living facilities. Polypharmacy cause an increase in risk for increased healthcare cost, adverse drug events, cognitive impairment, increase in falls and urinary incontinence, and could also affect their nutrition status. If a patient is taking multiple medications at one time, this could result in adverse effects leading to hospitalization, which would increase their health care cost. In addition, taking multiple medications could affect a person function and decrease their cognition resulting in dementia or

Polypharmacy refers to the use of four or more medications by a patient who is generally over the age of sixty-five also known as the geriatric population. While other populations are at risk, elderly patients have a higher rates of chronic illness which leads to taking several different medications. They are more likely to have numerous doctors causing poor communication between the groups of providers. This leads to different medications getting prescribed that can cause adverse reactions, overdoses and death.

According to the patient’s profile, the patient is an elderly, currently taking four different medications to control her chronic diseases, i.e., hypertension and diabetes. Several studies have established a clear association between elderly patients’ medication adherence and number of prescribed medications (1, 2). Given the prescribed number of doses per day in the elderly is inversely related to medication adherence (1, 2), one the potential reasons for Ms. Kinimaka’s poor adherence could be the number the medications she is taking daily.