Older adults and their caregivers: the transition to medication assistance

1. Nurses working with older adults and caregivers should consider medication management a complex activity. 2. Effective self-management of medication includes not only administering medication as prescribed, but also diverse actions and decisions from obtaining medications to monitoring for side effects of medications. 3. Nurses should be sure to include some assessment of cognitive capacity when determining if an older adult needs medication assistance, even if the older adult is under health care for a physical problem.