April, health literacy seem to be an ongoing issue and we all have to do our part to improve this. Many patients are just too embarrassed to speak up about not understanding the requirements for taking the prescribed medication. To the patient, the medication is a pill that must be taken, but is not clear that the time, amount, skipping days, all play an important role in the effectiveness of the medication. Patients simply don’t comprehend that you cannot replace one pill for two prescribed pills in order to stretch the course of the medication. This is why it’s necessary to educate the patient. It’s important for healthcare providers to spend that extra time educating their patients and not rush the process. If the provider has not
Kanye West and Harding’s quotes both relate to the character Billy Bibbit because he was an outcast in society and thought lowly of himself. Billy was different, and because of this, society did not accept him and that caused him to stay sheltered by his mother. His mother was overprotective and did not toughen Billy up, so Billy had a stutter and a deep dependence on other people. When he got to the hospital, he had no experience in the real world, and he suddenly had no help from his mother. This led him to be more withdrawn and allowed people to belittle him because he could not stand up for himself. After being made fun of and thrown aside by society, Billy had no self confidence. His feelings towards himself were only negative, and these feelings rules
Counseling patients is extremely important; it allows pharmacists with the opportunity to better understand the health status of their patients. If a patient doesn’t know what, why or how to take their medication. We are the ones who help educate them. Better informed patients equates to better overall healthcare. If they are more medically literate before seeking our help, we can better assist them. As they begin to inquire more, it pushes health care providers to be more conscientious of their tasks. Greater care and consideration is taken when our patients can also hold us accountable. Encouraging patients to reach out with concerns or comments will benefit the pharmacist patient care process. For example, if the patient was able to identify that the drug name, though similar, were blatantly incorrect and brought it to the attention of her pharmacist they could have fixed it before the patient walked out the
US health care is one of the most talked about or controversial topics in last few years. We often come across debates, articles or columns relating to this topic. This is a hot topic of this generation. Why everyone should have insurance? Why people should have for something that might not use? These are some of the questions we found ourselves surrounding by. In my opinion US citizens should be required to have insurance. Both men and women have separate needs when it comes to health. More women are facing health issues because of teen pregnancies and child birth, it is important to for everyone to have a health care plan according to their needs. So when the time comes right treatment and medical attention can be provided. In this piece I will be presenting some ideas and arguments supporting my side and also looking at the flip side of the discussion.
In the Institute of Medicine (IOM) report in 2006, Preventing Medication Error, more than 1/3 of the 1.5 million adverse drug events that were recorded in the United States each year occurred in an outpatient setting. Likewise, in 2008 IOM released a report that laid emphases on the need for setting universal standards within prescribing and dispensing practices. Multiple studies reported that an increased prevalence of patient adherence to taking prescribed medications can be compromised by their inability to comprehend or understand the directions for taking the medication (Wolf et al., 2016). The inability to understand and interpret prescription drug labels were recognized as the leading cause of a large proportion of outpatient medication error and adverse events, as patients may possibly accidentally misuse a prescribed
In 2003, Shirley Loewe walked through the doors of a local medical center to have a lump on her breast examined, (Carreyrou). After regular testing, the tumor was found to be a rare form of breast cancer. When Shirley Loewe entered the clinic, she was uninsured by any health insurance program. Due to federal law regarding the Medicaid program, Shirley Loewe would be accepted to cover her visit for coverage under Medicaid if she went to a different medical center. That particular infirmary Miss Loewe was diagnosed in rejected her plan, which led to her treatment of ridding cancer horrendous. After four years, five hospitals, two clinics, two large donations, two care facilities, two separate states, and denied care six times due to wealthy
point system of political beliefs that gives one a good idea of what the Klan is about: 1) stop
The CHPA website provides a statistic on the accessibility of OTC medications by stating “The availability of OTC medicines—off the shelf, without a prescription—provides symptomatic relief for an estimated 60 million people who otherwise would not seek treatment.” The problem is “Self-treating patients face challenges of choosing among diverse products and ingredients, which may be compounded by low health literacy” (Albert, Bix, Bridgeman,;et.al, 2014). Younger adults are buying medications from “hear-say” and from relying on their elders to give them correct information on the medication being taken. When in fact the younger people between the ages of 25-39 had a better literacy score, the score still shows that the population including older adults and younger adults are not fully comprehending the health information provided on the bottle. Albert, Bix, Bridgeman,;et.al, 2014 states that “Low health literacy is typically considered important because it interferes with communication of important health information,” which should be comprehendible when reading the products. There are “approximately 54,000 pharmacies in the United States. In addition, there are more than 750,000 retail outlets that sell OTC products,” as the CHPA website provides. Consumers should not
The provision of written medication information given to the patient helps significantly in cases of medication non compliance (McGraw & Drennan 2004). This is because it aids in memory retention and presents patients with access to a reliable source of concise medication information, particularly if the patient needs to be reminded of certain aspects (Gorgos 2006). These written medication information sheets need to be provided in the patients primary, dominant language because it reduces the difficulty and limits barriers to patient understanding (Gorgos 2006).This is important because this intervention aims to increase a patient’s understanding of their medications, and when a patient feels more competent with the use of their medications, reduced
In the event that someone is prescribed multiple medications and have low health literacy like many older adults do, they are at a great risk for ADR’s. If a patient doesn’t fully understand their medication they likely will not take their medication properly and are less likely to be able to report complications of the medication to a physician. (Mayo-Gamble,2017). We know that the literacy rate in New Brunswick is significantly poor so it is important for caregivers and loved ones to older adults to be diligent and educate on medication safety. Reliable health information is needed to prevent and manage disease, promote health and follow public health recommendations and warnings. (Whittaker, et.al, 2017). Inadequate health literacy is one challenge associated with poor medication adherence (mayo-Gamble, 2017).
Healthcare is the maintenance or improvement of health and the prevention of sickness diagnosis, and treatment of disease, illness, and injury. Because of the need for healthcare is so important, the America government had to come up with a way to make sure people have healthcare and be able to pay for it. The government came up with a healthcare system that use insurance and premiums to make sure one has coverage when they go to the hospital for healthcare needs. If the government and hospitals really care about people’s health, then why do they make insurance and premiums so high that people cannot afford them? In 2005 there was an estimate 45 million Americans that lacked health insurance, and the numbers have been climbing since (Clemmitt, Universal Coverage 1). If the government says that they care about human life, then there should just be universal coverage so everyone can get their healthcare needs met no matter if that person is poor or rich.
When it comes to our health, a good healthcare plan is a very important subject for all individuals. Some even argue that it is a basic right to have one. Bernie Sanders stated, “Healthcare must be recognized as a right, not a privilege. Every man, woman, and child in our country should be able to access the health care they need regardless of their income…” (“Issues: Medicare for All”). However, reality tells us a whole different story. America is one of the most developed countries in the world with some of the best medical care. Yet, how can the people enjoy the benefits when it is almost unaffordable to most. People are afraid to fall sick just because they are afraid of how much it would cost. However, sometimes a doctor or hospital visit is unavoidable. In most cases, it comes at a great price, especially to the middle class and the elderly. Wealthy individuals are likely to reap the benefits of having an expensive healthcare plan, while the rest may suffer from the unimaginable cost of treatments, or even worse, live a risky life without insurance. An effective solution to this problem would be a Universal Healthcare System. This would ensure that all people have equal and affordable health coverage, centralized healthcare records for all individuals which will help easy diagnosis by doctors and reduce the intensive labor costs of medical billing. Moreover, it may boost the economy by freeing business from providing expensive healthcare benefits to workers.
With an increase in the number of new prescriptions hitting the market and the growing number of patients taking prescription medications, patient health literacy becomes a rising problem. Approximately ninety percent of Americans currently take prescription or over-the-counter medications; however, patients that have an inadequate health literacy level are more likely misinterpret or suffer adverse drug effects due to a lack of understanding. (7) These possible adverse drug effects could also potentially increase the number of hospitalizations, thus raising health care costs. One study suggested that over half of the documented emergency department visits could have been avoided had the patient been more health literate. (4) If the patients involved would have been better educated about the side effects, contraindications, and drug interactions by their pharmacist or primary care provider, then emergency room visits and/or hospital admittance could have been prevented.
Clinicians now learn how to ask about medication compliance (using nonjudgmental questions followed by open-ended questions, e.g. “Many people find it hard to take all their medications every day”....“How often do you miss doses of your medications?”). Also pharmacists have several tools at their disposal to identify noncompliance problems early and implement corrective action. The traditional pharmacists´ “brown bag” review with the elders on all their medicines (prescription and other medicines, e.g. over-the-counter medications) is an effective way to start a dialogue with the patient using “show and tell” method (pharmacists remove items from the bag, shaking tablets or capsules into the cap and say, “Tell me what is this medicine for and how you take it”) . Using pharmacy records—the patient’s profile and refill records—and pill counts in the bottles, pharmacists can develop a fairly accurate idea of the patient’s compliance pattern
Healthy food should be accessible to everyone. If healthy food isn’t available for everyone all it’s going to do is cause more and more health problems. If we made healthy organic food the same price as cheap unhealthy food there would be a big difference in the health of our country. It’s completely unfair to make healthy food too expensive for other people to buy, which causes them to buy cheap unhealthy food, like off a dollar menu at a fast food restaurant. This issue needs to be put to an end.
Everybody sees it everywhere. “Lose 60 pounds in 6 weeks!” “Skinny is what’s in!” “Detox diet plan!” It’s a fair assumption to assume that the world, especially the United States, is obsessed with being healthy. From celebrity workout programs to expensive diet systems that make people lose weight, being fit is always what’s mainly focused on in the media, daily life, and nationwide. But with obsessions, come unhealthy actions and interests. Most people that anyone knows is most likely upset with some aspect of themselves. Whether it be the way they look, how they eat, or their lifestyle, obsession happens because of the nearly-impossible body types and lifestyles found on social media. On top of this, there are also restrictions and challenges that come with eating a healthy diet that seem simply irradical to address, and unhealthier foods are more available than ever. With these slowly arising issues, anyone would think the nation is making it hard for themselves to be healthy. The society the nation lives in is making it progressively harder and harder to be healthy because of the lifestyles that are easier to achieve.