2 Medication Use and Adherence
Learn how to teach medication purpose, dosing, timing, and administration, respond safely to missed doses, support adherence, and check understanding with teach-back.
Teach the medication plan
Effective helps a patient explain why a medicine is prescribed and how to take it safely. Use the current prescription label and the prescriber’s or pharmacist’s instructions. Do not guess or change a dose.
Explain the following parts of the plan:
Purpose: The condition or symptom the medicine is intended to treat.
Dose: How much to take each time. Use clear units and the supplied measuring device when needed.
Timing: When and how often to take the medicine, including instructions about meals or spacing doses.
Administration: How to take or use it, such as by mouth or with a particular device, including any specific technique.
: What to do if a dose is forgotten. Do not recommend taking an extra dose unless specifically instructed.
Check understanding with
Invite questions and provide written instructions that the patient can refer to later. Use by asking the patient to describe in their own words how they will take the medicine. If the explanation is incorrect or incomplete, explain the information again in a different way and check again.
A question such as “In your own words, how will you take this medicine tomorrow?” checks understanding more effectively than asking only “Do you understand?”
Support medication
is easier when the medication plan fits the patient’s daily routine. Discuss practical supports with the patient, while ensuring that any strategy is compatible with the medicine’s instructions. Options include:
Linking doses to an established daily activity.
Using a written medication schedule.
Setting reminders.
Using a pill organizer when appropriate.
Review the plan if remembering, obtaining, measuring, or taking the medicine is difficult. Encourage patients to ask a pharmacist or prescriber for help rather than changing or stopping a medicine on their own.
Apply the guidance to common questions
Use these situations to apply the guidance:
Purpose: If a patient asks, “Why am I taking this medicine?”, explain its intended purpose in plain language and invite questions.
Dose and timing: Ask the patient to repeat the amount per dose, when and how often to take it, and any relevant administration instructions.
Taking a medicine with food: Check the label or medicine-specific instructions, or ask a pharmacist or prescriber. Do not guess.
A forgotten dose: Do not advise doubling the next dose. Follow the medicine-specific missed-dose instructions or check with a pharmacist or prescriber.
Forgetting a daily dose: Discuss practical strategies such as a written schedule, a reminder, or connecting a dose to a suitable routine. Confirm that the strategy fits the medicine’s instructions.
Checking understanding: Ask, “In your own words, how will you take this medicine tomorrow?” This is the best choice among the following questions because it uses :
A. “Do you understand?”
B. “You’ll remember to take it, right?”
C. “In your own words, how will you take this medicine tomorrow?”