Assisted Living and Medicine Management
Nearly 80 percent of seniors take 3-5 medications per day. According to a CDC survey of assisted living facilities, over 90 percent of assisted living residents at 75 percent of the facilities surveyed receive at least some medication management assistance. This is critical when you consider that 85 percent of assisted living residents require at least a moderate level of assistance with the management of their medications.
Medications are an essential part of life for many seniors. From pain relievers to beta blockers, medicine can extend and increase their quality of life. On the other hand, when not taken properly, medication can have many harmful side effects or even become toxic.
Assisted living
...teract. Many of the medications are very powerful in and of themselves. This article also presents additional approaches to medicating the elderly, including focus on reduction of number of medications prescribed. Both articles present the importance of considering the normal physiological changes within geriatric patients.
When doctors prescribe medication for their patients, a local retail pharmacy is most likely to be utilized to fill the order. However, there is a growing population of older Americans that are no longer able to live independently and must reside in nursing homes or assisted living facilities. In order for this vulnerable population to receive their medications, a different kind of pharmacy is needed, these are known as LTC, long term care pharmacies. Within these specialized pharmacies there are highly trained employees called CPhTs, certified pharmacy technicians who are overseen by state licensed RPHs, otherwise known as pharmacists.
There are profound effects of ageism that can be harmful to a patient’s overall health. Ageism can cause physicians to consistently treat older patients unequally compared to younger adults. Unequal treatment can be divided into the under-treatment of symptoms and the over-treatment of symptoms. The imbalance in how a physician would treat a geriatric patient is ageist because the older adult is not getting fair treatment in every case. Under-treatment and over-treatment are different; however, they are both equally as harmful to a patients health.
Taking care of the individuals that are getting older takes many different needs. Most of these needs cannot be given from the help of a family. This causes the need of having to put your love one into a home and causing for the worry of how they will be treated. It is important for the family and also the soon to be client to feel at home in their new environment. This has been an issue with the care being provided for each individual, which has lead to the need of making sure individuals have their own health care plan.
With the aging population growing faster every year many families must make a difficult decision whether their loved ones should live in assisted living or nursing home facilities. I can relate because I made the decision to care for my mother at my home. Some people do not have the money or resources to care for their parent so they must live in a facility for health and safety reasons.
Polypharmacy is the “concurrent use of several differ drugs and becomes an issue in older adults when the high number of drugs in a medication regimen includes overlapping drugs for the same therapeutic effect”(Woo & Wynne, 2011, p. 1426). The patient is currently taking several medications that can potential interact with each other, perform the same therapeutic effect, and creating side effects. The following is a list of her medications and their indications:
Drug use appears to negatively affect the health of the elderly at a higher rate than other populations (Benshoff & Koch, 2003). This may be a result of old age. So, it can be understood there is a biological effect of substance abuse among the elderly. The elderly are more susceptible to being admitted into the hospital for adverse effects of substances, while other populations of society are not. Benshoff and Koch asserts, “Intentional abuse of prescription medications to get high is thought to be rare, but over-use does occur among this population. Often this over...
Polypharmacy among the elderly is a growing concern in U.S. healthcare system. Patients who have comorbities and take multiple medications are at a higher risk for potential adverse drug reactions. There is a great need for nursing interventions in conducting a patient medication review also known as “brown bag”. As nurses obtain history data from patients at a provider visit, the nurse should ask “what medications are you taking?” and the answer needs to include over-the-counter medications as well. If the response does not include any medications other than prescribed meds, it is incumbent upon the nursing professionals to question the patient further to ensure that no over-the-counter medications or supplements are being consumed. This is also an opportunity for the nurse to question about any adverse reactions the patient may be experiencing resulting from medications. Polypharmacy can result from patients having multiple prescribers and pharmacies, and patients continuing to take medications that have been discontinued by the physician. Nurses are in a unique position to provide early detection and intervention for potentially inappropriate medications and its associated adverse drug reactions.
Polypharmacy among the elderly is a growing concern in U.S. healthcare system. Elderly who have comorbities and take multiple medications are at a higher risk for potential adverse drug reactions. Elderly who take over-the-counter medications, herbs, and supplements without consulting their physician are at risk for adverse reactions associated with polypharmacy. Polypharmacy can result from patients having multiple prescribers and pharmacies, and patients who continue to take medications which have been discontinued by the physician. There is a great need for nursing interventions regarding polypharmacy, including medication reviews also known as “brown bag”. As nurses obtain history data and conduct a patient assessment, it is essential to review the patients’ medications and ask open-ended questions regarding all types of medications in which the patient is taking. In addition, the patient assessment is also an opportunity for the nurse to inquire about any adverse reactions the patient may be experiencing resulting from medications. Nurses are in a unique position to provide early detection and intervention for potentially inappropriate medications and its associated adverse drug reactions.
Today was our first day at the nursing home, and wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. My resident is in room number 6 bed 2. There is a do not resuscitate is place for her, she is a very sweet lady that doesn't need help with a lot of things such as eating. Showers are only one Wednesdays and Saturdays today I gave her a bed bath. Starting with her top half everything looked fine and normal until I started peri-care. As I'm washing her we talked about her Thanksgiving and family. She told me she has a daughter and 3 grandsons which includes a pair of twins that are 7. Anyways her legs are contracted so try to wipe the peri area was a little harder. I also notice she had a cover on decubitus ulcer I think. The cna Shamoy helped me along the way. The resident could reposition by herself which helped me also.
These care services can be provided to seniors through the long-term care insurance program. According to the national survey that was conducted among people who are 55 and older, just 36% believed that they would need long-term insurance (Carter, 2008). However, it's estimated that at least 60% of people over the age of 65 will require some long-term care services at some point in their lives (Carter, 2008).... ... middle of paper ...
Moving into assisted living or a retirement community can be difficult on both the individual and their loved ones. Fortunately, there is plenty family members can be to ease the transition. Below, West Haven, Connecticut’s premier Alzheimer’s care and senior living facility, Seacrest Retirement Center outlines 5 tops to help your loved one adjust to the move.
The active aging vision aims to contribute for a healthy, autonomous, independent life expectation and with quality of life as people get older, including those who are vulnerable, physically disabled or in need of care [1-3]. The term active refers not only to the ability to be physically active or have an occupation, but also be able to participate in social, economic, cultural, civil or spiritual matters. Therefore, the elderly, even when having some kind of pathology or disability, should continue to contribute actively in social terms, together with their family, friends and community [3]. In this context, technological solutions have a key role in the promotion of human functioning and in the mitigation of disabilities, particularly the ones resulting from the natural aging process. This perspective is evident in the development of Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) products and services [4].
Those who live healthily, never really knows the liberty they have; but I think everyone who older people at home will be able to explain this to them. The medication of any living being should be perfect because it gives guarantee to such life and thereby increasing the longevity of such.
Elderly people are most commonly afflicted by circulatory disturbances, metabolic disorders, involutional mental disorders, disorders of the joints, rheumatism, arthritis, tumors (both benign & malignant) heart disease, hypertension, visual and hearing impairments, gait disorders, and mental & nervous conditions.