Medication

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Medication

If medications are necessary, this M focuses on using age-friendly medications that do not affect a person’s care goals, their mobility, and their mentation. Many older adults are on 5 or more prescription medications. This can be difficult to manage, expensive, and increases the risk of harmful side effects or drug interactions. It is important for providers to be aware of polypharmacy, or more medications than are clinically necessary, for their older patients.

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Geriatric Pharmacology Training Module

Professor Emeritus Geriatrician Kenneth Brummel-Smith created a training module for nurses on geriatric pharmacology. Trainees can learn about warning signs that indicate there is a medication problem, techniques to assess an older patient’s understanding of the goal of treatment, and how to educate patients about safe medication use.

The American Geriatrics Society’s Beers List Criteria

The American Geriatrics Society’s Beers List Criteria outlines potentially inappropriate medication use in older adults and is widely used by clinicians, educators, researchers, healthcare administrators, and regulators. Learn about the 2019 update to the list from this article in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.

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