Patient self-medication--a change in hospital practice.

Aims And Objectives: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a self-medication programme (SMP) for inpatients of the Nursing Convalescent Unit, a 26-bed unit with medical and surgical patients.

Background: Self-medication is an important part of self-management of chronic illness. Self-medication is a way of allowing patients to give themselves their medications in hospital after receiving education instead of the usual practice of medications administered by a Registered Nurse (RN).