Things You need To Do When Your Senior Patient Refuses To Take Their Medication

It is every healthcare professional’s responsibility to make sure that their patients are following the doctor’s orders. Despite the fact that nurses are focused on monitoring their patient’s medications, some patients, particularly senior patients, have episodes of refusing to take their medications. When this happens, the patient’s road to recovery is seriously compromised.

Instead of getting upset with this situation, it is better to know the reasons why senior patients refuse to take their medications. Approaching them in a very professional way may intimidate them resulting for them to refuse to tell you the reasons why. It is best to talk them in a very friendly and subtle way about the problem. What could be some reasons why senior patients refuse to take their medications?

1. The medication seems not to work on them.

Some senior patients complain that the medicines that they have are not alleviating their pain or making them well. They have their own assessment whether the drug is effective or not. Talk to the patient why they think that the medicine is ineffective. If the patient’s reasons match your data, then it is best to consult the attending physician to report the case. A new prescribed drug might make the patient take his medicine. However, if your record shows changes to their medical condition, you can show your patient the data. Support this by lab results that will make the patient understand that the drug is indeed working. All they need to do is understand.

2. The drug has negative side effects.

Senior patients are more sensitive with side effects. If they get headaches or feel nauseous with the given medicine, they are most likely to stop taking it. They do not want to feel more pain or sick than they are already at present. If this is the case, it is best to call the attention of the attending physician if he or she can prescribe another medicine with minimal or no side effects. Also, if pain is the side effect, you can ask the doctor to include pain killers to the patient’s medications.

The patient believes they do not need to be treated.

Some patients think that they are not sick, so they do not feel the need to be treated. They refuse to take these medications because they believe they are healthy. As a healthcare professional, it is your responsibility to explain to the patient the reason why he or she needs to be treated. Explain things as simple as possible for the patient to understand. Accepting the fact that they are sick and needs to be treated is a priority for you to do.

As a healthcare professional, the responsibility of taking care and making it possible for the senior patient well is a huge responsibility. It takes a lot of patience and empathy for healthcare professionals to understand their patient. No matter how stubborn these senior patients are, the most important task to remember is to keep them healthy and well-taken care of all the time.

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