A95 Medicines optimisation and deprescribing
Course summary
Elderly patients are increasingly vulnerable to errors in prescribing, administrating, dispensing and monitoring medication. Older age can also carry greater risks from polypharmacy and adverse drug reactions. New treatments are often added to combat the side effects of previous treatment. Older people may also have multiple comorbidities, for which more than one prescriber may instigate treatment. The challenge for health professionals is to work out when a patient is taking too many medicines and when, how and why to stop treatment.
Who should attend?
Non-medical Prescribers (nurses, pharmacists and others)
Doctors
Care home managers
Nurses
Advanced Nurse Practitioners
Nurse Practitioners
Community Matrons
Community Nurses
Practice Nurses
Aims / objectives
- Understand medicines optimisation and how this is applied in the elderly polypharmacy population using evidence-based medicine
- Use evidence to influence the change in polypharmacy and to support your reasons for stopping or changing medication
- Identify medicines or combinations that cause harm in elderly patients
- Understand what anticholinergic burden score means and how to use this
- Carry out cost-effective prescribing of medicines, nutritional products, catheters and other appliances for elderly patients.
Course programme
- The evidence and tools that are available to help health professionals support the reduction of polypharmacy/prescribing in older people
- How to identify which patients are at greater risk due to current prescribing
- Quick wins that can be made to improve your prescribing budget, while simultaneously improving patients' quality of care
- Which medicines we should consider prescribing for elderly patients, and why
- Investigating whether interventions are preventing hospital admissions
- Sleep hygiene
- MUST score and nutrition.
Led by
TBA