The pharmacist's role in the management of the elderly's medication at home

Abstract

Introduction. Pharmacists have a central role in ensuring the safety of medicines throughout the pharmaceutical care process. Providing advanced drug therapy management services in outpatient settings ensures the reduction of problems related to the medication of the elderly and improves their therapeutic compliance. Aim of study. Evaluation of the elderly's perception of the problems encountered during the administration of medicines at home to highlight ways to involve the pharmacist in their prevention. Methods and materials. The study method used in the research is the survey of elderly people who use drugs. 194 questionnaires were collected and validated which describe the difficulties of using medicines in the elderly. Results. The answers given by the elderly indicate that only 15.97% of the respondents have problems related to the administration of medicines; 61,07% often ask the pharmacist about the correct way of administration, thus, only 14.94% indicated that they very rarely make the wrong way of administering the medicine. 44,84% of the respondents had cases of correct storage of the medicine in domestic conditions, even if 32.98% often asked about the correct way to store the requested medicine at home. In a quarter of the respondents occurred cases of polypharmacy (25.77%), adverse reactions (25.25%) and only 30.87% know how to report adverse reactions. 21, 64% of the respondents are rarely unable to use the medicines, and 27.83% do not understand/read its instructions. Conclusion. Being the last in direct contact with the patient, the pharmacist during the act of dispensing the medicines through the appropriate counseling provided to the elderly patient would improve their drug administration and storage practices at home.