How Nurses Can Best Support Patients With Patients

Estimates are that 20-50% of patients do not adhere to prescribed medication regimens and that this nonadherence may be responsible for up to 10 percent of all hospitalizations.1 Preparing patients to manage their medications upon returning home from the hospital is a critical component to illness management and preventing readmission to the hospital. Patients who report they are unprepared to care for themselves after discharge from the hospital are likely to be readmitted.2 Readmission to the hospital is associated with increased cost,3 and increased risk for mortality4. Thus, understanding how nurses can best support patients to self-manage their medications is imperative. To prepare patients for self-management requires nurses to†¦show more content†¦Furthermore, collaborative communication that emphasizes shared decision making between provider and patient is associated with patient activation and medication adherence.7,8 The purpose of this research is to examine the relationships of hospital inpatients perceptions of nurse communication and patients’ understanding of their prescribed medications to begin to build a framework for interventions to support patients’ medication self-management. Background Medication adherence is simply defined as the extent to which patients follow prescribed medication recommendations.9 Adherence includes taking medication the way it is prescribed (right dose, right time, right route, right person), whereas medication management requires patients to understand their medication (purpose, dose, frequency, how to take it, side effects) as well as developing habits to remember to take the medications within the context of their daily lives. Actually managing medications is a relatively more complex process and can be influenced by patient activation, beliefs about medications, side effects,10 multiple daily dosing, complex regimens,10 polypharmacy,10 and communication with the healthcare team. Self-care management includes treatment adherence (following instructions) as well as symptom management and daily life management,11 Therefore, patients’ understanding of their home self-care involves being able to integrate hospital