Make medication education ongoing
Pharmacy can help alleviate confusion
Education about medications should occur when the nurse administers it to the patient in the hospital, says Anthony Compton, PharmD, coordinator of clinical pharmacy services at St. Joseph's Hospital of Atlanta. "Education needs to start at the point that the medication is administered and be an ongoing process," he says. Each time the nurse gives patients a medication, he or she should ask them if they know what the drug is and why they are taking it.
Patients who seem confused or don't understand the information are referred by the nurse to the pharmacy department. This usually occurs when a patient is on several medications. At that time, the pharmacist will ask three open-ended questions before providing the education to the patient. The three questions are:
· What did your physician tell you the medication is for?
· What did your physician tell you to expect from taking the medication?
· What type of side effects did your physician tell you to expect from this medication?
Answers to the questions help the pharmacist assess the patient's level of understanding of the medication, explains Compton. Also, they help to capture the patient's attention so the pharmacist can continue discussing the drug with the patient. Often pharmacists at St. Joseph's take along a laptop computer so they can show patients what the medication they are discussing looks like and access other information. Once the education is complete, the pharmacist will ask one or two more questions before leaving to ensure that the patient understands. For example, the pharmacist might ask how the patient will take the medication.
Patients receive drug information sheets on all their medications. In addition, they are frequently given a video on the drug provided by the manufacturer. "We give the patients videos to take home with them because we realize that they remember very little of what we say, especially if we do the discharge medication consult right when they are about to leave the hospital or the same day," says Compton.
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