Caregivers can assist clients by reminding them to take their medications and helping with the preparation and administration of these medications. They can also aid in creating a medication schedule. Additionally, caregivers can call healthcare providers to request refills or pick up medications from pharmacies, ensuring that patients have the correct medications available at home when needed.
With nursing oversight through RN delegation, caregivers are permitted to administer medications to patients who cannot cognitively understand the task or physically complete it themselves.
A nurse can assist in establishing a medication regimen, ensuring that clients and their families understand their medication needs and how to take their medications properly. The nurse can manage medication organization, ensuring that medications are properly arranged, dosages are accurate, and any necessary changes are coordinated with healthcare providers.
Medication errors pose serious risks to patients and can sometimes lead to fatalities. These errors can arise from various factors, including misunderstandings of medication instructions, incorrect dosages, or confusion between similar-sounding drug names. Alarmingly, as many as 38% of elderly individuals report experiencing at least one medication error.
To mitigate these risks, we conduct monthly or weekly visits for many patients to help manage their medications. This support enables caregivers and family members to administer medications safely and with confidence. This can be especially helpful when clients return home from the hospital with new medications and need to fully understand their care.
However, it is illegal in Washington State for a caregiver to set up medications in a medication organizer independently. When administering medications to patients, they must verify the five safety rights of medication: the correct medication, dose, route, patient, and time. A nurse can come to set up the medication organizer to ensure that everything is arranged properly.
