Nursing Medication: Education (Essay Sample)

Nursing Medication: Education
Nursing education on drug therapy is encouraged because nurses are close to patients and their families. Nurses should have adequate knowledge on drug therapy in order to help patients with their medication adherence and improve patient outcomes. Nursing education on therapy should equip nurses with adequate knowledge on pharmaceutics of drugs, pathology and nursing practice among others. Similarly, patient education about medication is an important aspect of patient care. It helps to achieve patient outcomes by improving patient’s adherence to medical prescriptions.
Reiss (1996) highlights that the purpose of nurse education about medication and therapies is to promote consistency in approach to assessing, educating and evaluating patient’s abilities and knowledge with medications. Nursing education on medication and drug therapy enables nurses to make the right assessments and instruction on medication management. It offers nurses a platform to control what they tell their patients about therapy and management of medication. Reiss (1996) reiterates that patient adherence to medication enhances patient outcomes. Nurses should have the right skills to teach patients on medication adherence and address patient’s fears concerning therapy and medications.
Patient medication teaching should include components aimed at improving self administration of medication among patients. According to Shelfer (1989), patient education on medication should focus on empowering patients with visual recognition of the drug, medication dosage and time for each medication. Patient education on medication should help the patient to understand all side effects of the prescribed medication and address the patient’s fears associated with medication. Shelfer (1989) urges that when physicians or nurses are administering medications, all prescriptions should have the expected period for which the medication should be taken. Nurses should highlight this period to patients and help them understand the consequences of failure to adhere to prescription. Nurses should educate patients to understand that noncompliance to prescription can lead to therapeutic failure (Shelfer, 1989). They should utilize valuable education techniques to enhance patient compliance to medication and therapy because lack of compliance increases the severity of illness, patient’s dependency and medication side effects.
Research has shown that involving patients in administration of their own medication increases their safety and enables the nurse to evaluate how the patient understands his medication (Shelfer, 1989). Nurses should ensure that patients are comfortable with the idea of nurses administering medication to patients rather than forcing them to do so. This can only be achieved by utilizing effective communication between nurses and their patients.
According to Brincat (2012), medication adherence is the degree to which patients take their own medication according to agreed recommendations by healthcare providers. Patients have the right to choose to comply with medication recommendations given by healthcare providers. Studies have shown that between thirty and fifty percent of medications prescribed for patients with long-term conditions are not taken as recommended (Brincat, 2012). Non adherence to medication is usually unintentional or intentional. Causes of non-intentional adherence include patient’s poor recall, patient’s inability to understand instructions or forgetting to take the prescribed medication (Brincat, 2012). There are knock-on costs that result from increased healthcare demands when patients fail to comply with medication. Research has shown that non-adherence to medication causes annual losses of $100 billion in U.S each year (Brincat, 2012). It is important for nurses to utilize effective education strategies to improve patient outcomes by enhancing adherence to prescribed medication.
The American College of Preventive Medicine (2011) emphasizes on the fact that patient education on medication should be conveyed in a simple manner that patients understand. Nurses should explain to patients how they should administer medications to themselves and create a shame-free environment where patients can freely express their concerns. They should encourage patients to openly ask questions and voice their concerns during education on medication. Creating an atmosphere that encourages successful interaction between the patient and the nurse is important because it helps the nurse to clarify information, explore patient’s questions, and explore patient’s beliefs and concerns about medication. It also increases patient satisfaction with them medication (Brincat, 2012). Educating patients on medication should focus on enhancing the patients’ understanding about the importance of taking medication and how it improves their treatment outcomes.
Effective communication between the nurse and the patient has a direct impact on positive patient care outcomes such as increased patient satisfaction, increased ability for patient to recall information, improved health status and adherence to medication prescriptions (American College of Preventive Medicine, 2011). This is mainly because discussions between patients and their providers help patients to understand their illnesses, benefits of adhering to treatments and the weight of the risks that their illnesses pose. According to American College of Preventive Medicine (2011), poor adherence to prescriptions leads to decrease in treatment benefits and may obscure assessment of therapeutic effectiveness. Furthermore, non-adherence accounts for 30 to 50 percent of treatment failures and leads to poor treatment outcomes. Nurse education on therapy should focus on how to effectively communicate with patients in order to eliminate patient’s misunderstanding on medication prescriptions. It should also focus on enhancing nurse’s understanding of different cultures and beliefs of their patients to help them avoid assumption...