The right resident and the resident’s right to refuse

Identify and respect the resident’s wishes and beliefs about medication.

You should take time to sit down with residents and relatives to find out what their wishes, preferences and religious beliefs are and when they would like them to be considered.

Care home staff must:

• Always record meetings
• Record instances where residents state they do not wish to take medicines
• Respect, understand and document the resident’s wishes

You should involve the resident and/or those important to them to make shared decisions about medication.

Care home staff must:

• Actively identify the most appropriate relative or person with power of attorney
• Consider other healthcare professionals e.g. GP, pharmacist, carers, nurses and anyone else who may know the resident very well
• Record decisions in care plans and share this with relevant members of the team ensure residents are at the centre of any decision making

Polypharmacy is the prescribing of multiple medicines to one individual. This can be appropriate as older people tend to have multiple conditions. Inappropriate polypharmacy can cause adverse effects.

Medicines optimisation reviews ensure that residents receive medicines which improve their quality of life. The benefits gained from medicines must outweigh the risks.This ensures that medicines don’t interact with each other or with any disease the resident may have.

Watch the video to understand the importance of the first two R’s of safe medication administration.

This information will come in useful for the final steps which tests your understanding. You can come back to, pause or replay the video as you need.