Have you heard of people overdosing on medication or drug and die?  I’m sure you have heard of something like this before. This topic is really important because most people take their medicine but they don’t take it properly. How so? They miss some pill in some day; they take it too much or too little. They take old medication. They take medication that they are allergic to which can cause them to die. They take the wrong dosages. They skip some days. They think more is better. They take someone else’s medicine. They store the medication in a hot temperature. They don’t continue to take their medication. They end it too soon. They take it with foods or drinks that are incompatible. The list goes on about how patients don’t take their medication properly.

I went to nursing school and had work for several years in the hospital and all of these problems are very common without the patients being aware of it. The patients don’t know that they’re making mistakes.  It’s alright though because if you didn’t major in health care you wouldn’t know any of these things at all. You’re confused most of the time. You don’t even know what your medication do in your body. Patients sometimes don’t know about their medication and they need to learn some more to ensure their safety. Health care providers teach their patients but it’s not in depth or good enough. Patients need to learn some on their own time.

One group of patients that are at risk for these problems are the elderly and kids because they’re limited in some ways and that prevent them from doing things correctly. The elderly are too old and uninterested in learning about their medication. Kids also have no interest in learning about their medication but also lack knowlege about general things regarding to medication.

The more they know how to take their medication correctly the more effective their treatment is. If patients skip taking medication for 2 days and then go back to it the third day, they made a mistake and have decrease the potency of their treatment. If they only take 1 pill a day instead of 3 pills a day then they’re reducing the potency of their treatment.

The health care provider or their family members need to monitor the patients medication taking behavior and teach them to do the right things. Most elderly and children will skip their medicines. People don’t like to take medicine overall. Medication can be combine with some foods or drinks for better flavor. You can also blend it with apple sauce or orange juice.

There are several things that patients need to do in order to ensure proper medication taking procedure has been done.

1. The patient has to learn about the medication and what it does to them before they even take it. Knowing it will ensure that they know why they’re on it so that they don’t go off of it for no reason. For example if you’re on medication to reduce your diabetes problems, it’s very dangerous if you stop taking it for one or two days and then re-take it again. Your diabetes symptoms would attack you if you’re not taking medication.

2. You can help the patient by giving them an easy to read print out indicating all the things they need to know about the medication. They can take it out and read it on their spare time. There are these available at the hospital or it comes with the medication.

3. Have the patient reiterate what you taught them to ensure that they understand

4. Patients need to know that medication can only be store in cool places. Avoid putting it in your car or else it will melt. Don’t put it near the window because of sunlight. When it melts, it’s not that effective anymore. Don’t take anything that you’re allergic to because you can die in minutes of allergic reaction. If you’re having an allergic reaction then you need to quit taking the medication and call your doctor.

5. Patients need to learn to take it exactly as told by the doctor or nurse. They should not change anything regarding dosage or how many pills per day.

6. Patients need to bring medication with them to work or when they go out. Just in case your symptoms strike you will have your medication.

7. The care provider for the patient (family, nurse) need to also know their entire treatment program and what medications they need to take every single day.

8. The patients need to know the time that they need to take the pill and how many and with what kind of food.

9. Only take the medication that has been prescribed exactly to you by your doctor and don’t combine it together at the same time with anything that was not prescribed.

10. If you need to take something else that was not prescribed by your doctor then you need to consult with your doctor because certain medication can adversely affect each other and can kill you. For example if you combine certain depressant drug with alcohol, the potency will increase and you will be very depressed to the point that your respiratory center in the brain will also be slow down and you can die from failing to breathing.

11. No medication can be combine with alcohol, or illegal drugs. You can die from the interaction or overdose.

12. The more is not the better. The more you take the more dosage you’re putting into your body and the likely hood of you dying. Take the right number prescribe to you only. No more or no less is the golden rule.

13. Take the pill in the form that the doctor want you to. If he say crush it and take it then you should crush the pill. If it says take it without opening the capsule then that’s what you need to do. The rubber capsule is there for a reason. It’s there to slow down the releasing time of the medication until the pill get to the stomach. They don’t want all the medicine to be absorb all at once. They want it to be release slowly. There is a reason for each particular ways the doctor want you to take it. You just need to follow it. Do not crush medicine if the doctor didn’t prescribe you to. Do not open the capsule because capsule is not meant to be open unless prescribed so.

14. Do not skip a day, week or month and then come back to your medication. It will be out of order and have less potency.

15. You can’t take your family’s medicine and they can’t take yours because the dosages is different for everyone and everyone illness is different in every single way.

16. Also you may be allergic to their medication and they may be to yours. You can die from allergy reaction.

17. Always do exactly what your doctor told you.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 1st, 2008 at 2:41 am.