Medication Awareness

Medication training is necessary because giving medication is more complex than you may think. It isn't just about giving the patient a glass of water and a handful of pills. Understanding the wider implications surrounding medication is important and valuable knowledge to have.

Care workers should also know how to store and dispense medication correctly, keeping records up-to-date and understand the relevant legislation around the administration of medication.

The 5 rights of medication administration, also known as the 6 rights of medication administration, are designed to reduce the risk of error in administrating medication and to protect people from any accidental harm. The main 5 rights are:

1. Right Person
2. Right Medicine
3. Right Dose
4. Right time
5. Right Route

A medical practitioner or a registered nurse should administer medication in a care home if that care home is registered to provide nursing care. If it isn't, the law doesn't prevent health care assistants or assistant practitioners (both with or without nursing) from administering medicines in care homes if they have gone through the appropriate training and are competent. However, the care home manager and staff should keep this regularly under review.

All staff administering medicines must follow the care home's policies and procedures about managing medicines.

The 4 categories of medication are General Sales List (GSL), Controlled Drugs, Pharmacy Medicines and Prescription Only Medicines (POM). They each have different marks to help identify them:

1. General Sales List (GSL) - These can be brought almost anywhere. GSLs include paracetamol, vitamin supplements and cold and flu remedies.
2. Controlled Drugs - The packaging is marked with 'POM' and 'CD'. These are the most serious category of drugs so they require a prescription from a medical professional.
3. Pharmacy Medicines - The packaging is marked with 'P' and are only available to buy at a pharmacy.
4. Prescription Only Medicines (POM) - The packaging is marked with 'POM'. POM medicines are similar to controlled drugs where they have to be prescribed by a medical professional e.g. anti-depressants or insulin.

There are 6 routes of medication administration and the chosen route is dependent on varying factors, including the illness, illness severity, the needs of the patients and their condition. The 6 most common routes of medication administration are as follows:

1. Oral - swallowed through the mouth by either a tablet, liquid, capsule, lozenge or chewable tablet.
2. Rectal - could be the next option if they are unable to swallow the medication.
3. Inhalation - inhaled through the airway in either the form of powder, mist or spray.
4. Nebulization - this is a machine that allows the patient to inhale the drug as a very fine mist.
5. Transdermal - a patch is placed on the skin with the medicine that penetrates into the bloodstream.
6. Injection - where medicine is injected into either the spine, under the skin, into a vein or into a muscle.