Should You Crush That Tablet?

The National Prescribing Centre recognize some fundamental differences in the absorption, distribution and excretion of medicines between adults and children. The differences are published in the National Prescribing Centre’s bulletin, produced by

This is medication that is taken via the mouth. This can be in the form of tablets and capsules. If an individual finds it difficult to swallow tablets oral medication is also available in liquids, suspensions and syrups. Sublingual medications are for example when tablets are placed under the tongue to dissolve quickly.

Using a mortar and pestle, the weighted tablets are crushed manually and turned into homogeneous powder. Ground material is transferred to a 250 cm3 glass beaker with 200cm3 of deionized water in it. The solution is stirred with glass rod. This solution is transferred to a 250cm3 conical flask that had been previously washed with deionized water.

In an effort to reduce the occurrence of medication errors, JHACO has thoroughly investigated and implemented new safety standards of care. JHACO implemented a new standard referred to as the “10 Rights of Drug Administration.” 1. The Right Drug, 2. Right Patient, 3. Right Dose, 4. Right Route, 5. Right Time and Frequency, 6. Right Documentation, 7. Right History and Assessment, 8. Drug approach and Right to Refuse, 9. Right Drug to Drug Interaction and Evaluation, and 10. Right Education and Information. Failure to follow the 10 Rights of Medication Administration can result in a patient’s injury or death (Potter, Perry, Hall, & Stockert, 2013).

Only 33.2% of patients instructed (only by nurses) on how to use their medications with respect to meal. Surprisingly, patients who instructed by nurses were also at high risk for potential food-drug interactions. Despite recommendations all these patients had consumed their medications at the not appropriate time with respect to meal. Due to lack of dispersion, patient instruction was excluded from the further analysis.

Due to her dysphagia, Anne is more prone to medication errors (Wright and Kelly 2012 J. Therefore the nurse needs to observe her ability to swallow, each time before administering the drug (Kelly and Wright, 2010). As Anne can swallow the thickened fluids and yogurts, the nurse can add the tablets into them, but needs to inform Anne about the presence of medication in it (Kelly and Wright, 2010)). However, in future, if there any deterioration is noticed in Anne’s dysphagia, the nurse needs to inform to the doctor, and then he can prescribe an alternative form of that medication (Wright and Kelly 2012). Moreover, Anne was not allowed to either chew or crush the tablets; due to its quick release can increase the likelihood of the side effects

Many people find it difficult to swallow a pill. They often feel that they can choke on the pill or simply suffer from a mental block when it comes to taking oral medicines. We recognise the problems of such patients and therefore, recommend that these patients need to find alternative methods to take the required medicines.

Slow release: Enteric coated tablets are non crush, they are known as sustained-release tablets, which can be composed of

It is clear from Figure 9 that the conventional release system has some limitations. Frequent administration is required because of the short half-life[38,39]. However, the release rate of the controlled release system, can be kept at a expected level for a relatively long period of time. It can avoid drug plasma level fluctuations and stabilize plasma level[38]. In addition,

One formulation approach that could be used in order to develop a one-month sustained release formulation of compound 5 as a microbicide would be using intravaginal rings. Intravaginal rings are flexible and torus shaped devices that are placed in the vagina (adjacent to the cervix). A concentration gradient is formed when the device comes into contact with the vaginal lumen and hence the drug is released. The rings are usually made up of silicone or ethylene vinyl acetate.

“There are four principal routes through which drugs can be delivered into the body: oral administration, injection, inhalation, and absorption through the skin or membranes” (Levinthal,2012). Consequently, the goal is for drugs to be captivated into the bloodstream. Nevertheless, three ways drugs can be administered into the body would be oral administration, intravenous injection, and inhalation. Conversely, oral administration examples would include pills, marijuana baked in food, methamphetamine, and PCP. Whereas, the advantages would be that taking drugs orally has a slow absorption time frame. And the disadvantages would include no immediate consequence. Nevertheless, intravenous injection examples would include method by needle given to the body in the vein.

Nurses must be aware to verify as medications as they are removed from the Pyxis

Time released supplements are dissolved slowly and deliver a steady amount of vitamins over a period of time. Sustained release has a longer half-life and produces stable levels of the vitamin throughout the day (Cascade, Kalali, & Weisler, 2008). They are enteric coated, which protects them from being digested in the stomach. They contain tiny pellets of the vitamin, each individually coated so that their contents are steadily released overtime (United States Pharmacopeia, 2012).

This review presents a survey of challenges associated with formulating MDIs as solution or suspension products with one or more drugs, while considering the physicochemical properties of various excipients and how the addition of these excipients may impact overall product performance of the MDI. Propellants, volatile and nonvolatile cosolvents, surfactants, polymers, suspension stabilizers, and bulking agents are among the variety of excipients discussed in this review article. Furthermore, other formulation approaches, such as engineered excipient and drug-excipient particles, to deliver multiple drugs from a single MDI are also evaluated. The device hardware includes a canister that is appropriately sized to contain sufficient formulation for the required number of doses, a metering valve capable of delivering a consistent amount of drug with each dose delivered, an actuator mouthpiece that atomizes the formulation and serves as a conduit to deliver the aerosol to the patient, and often an indicating mechanism that provides information to the patient on the number of doses

Botryoidal-shaped crystallized xylitol powder produced considerably harder tablets (maximum hardness of 43 N at 2000 psi) than commercial xylitol (maximum hardness of 17 N at 1500 psi) (Fig. 9–a). This could be related to the improved flow properties for crystallized xylitol in comparison to commercial xylitol (CI: 4.7 ± 0.2% versus 10.7 ± 0.6%) (Table 1).