TY - JOUR
T1 - Evaluation of a medication education program for elderly hospital in-patients
AU - Shen, Qing
AU - Karr, Margaret
AU - Ko, Anita
AU - Chan, Daniel Kam Yin
AU - Khan, Rosaline
AU - Duvall, Dale
PY - 2006
Y1 - 2006
N2 - To improve elderly patients’ understanding and safe usage of their medications. English-speaking hospital inpatients aged > or =65 years were recruited. They were selfmedicating at home with at least 1 regular medication and had a Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) score of at least 20 out of 30. The patients were taught medication details on 3 consecutive days. The patients’ medication knowledge was recorded before education and again at a home visit after discharge from hospital. Patient medication knowledge before education showed that participants knew 50% of brand names, dosage and times, 55% of medication purpose, and 15% of major side effects. At follow-up home visits, the relevant figures improved significantly to 90%, 85%, and 25%, respectively (P≤.05). Similar improvement occurred in the 2 patient groups with an MMSE score of 20 to 24 and 25 to 30 (P=.03). This simple, practical, nursing-staff-conducted program worked well in a hospital setting and resulted in improved medication knowledge, even in patients with mild cognitive impairment.
AB - To improve elderly patients’ understanding and safe usage of their medications. English-speaking hospital inpatients aged > or =65 years were recruited. They were selfmedicating at home with at least 1 regular medication and had a Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) score of at least 20 out of 30. The patients were taught medication details on 3 consecutive days. The patients’ medication knowledge was recorded before education and again at a home visit after discharge from hospital. Patient medication knowledge before education showed that participants knew 50% of brand names, dosage and times, 55% of medication purpose, and 15% of major side effects. At follow-up home visits, the relevant figures improved significantly to 90%, 85%, and 25%, respectively (P≤.05). Similar improvement occurred in the 2 patient groups with an MMSE score of 20 to 24 and 25 to 30 (P=.03). This simple, practical, nursing-staff-conducted program worked well in a hospital setting and resulted in improved medication knowledge, even in patients with mild cognitive impairment.
UR - http://handle.uws.edu.au:8081/1959.7/533199
U2 - 10.1016/j.gerinurse.2006.03.015
DO - 10.1016/j.gerinurse.2006.03.015
M3 - Article
SN - 0197-4572
VL - 27
SP - 184
EP - 192
JO - Geriatric Nursing
JF - Geriatric Nursing
IS - 3
ER -