Feasibility of a practical nurse administered risk assessment tool for drug-related problems in home care.

Aim: To evaluate feasibility of a practical nurse-administered Drug-related Problem Risk Assessment Tool among home care clients ⩾65 years.

Methods: Altogether, 36 practical nurses participated in the study. They were trained about the purpose and use of the tool.

Content validation of a tool for assessing risks for drug-related problems to be used by practical nurses caring for home-dwelling clients aged ≥65 years: a Delphi survey.

Purpose: Home care services are becoming a critically important part of health care delivery as populations are aging. Those using home care services are increasingly older, more frail than previously, and use multiple medications, making them vulnerable to drug-related problems (DRPs). Practical nurses (PN) visit home-dwelling aged clients frequently and, thus, are ideally situated to identify potential DRPs and, if needed, to communicate them to physicians for resolution.

Comprehensive medication reviews for elderly patients: findings and recommendations to physicians.

Objectives: To assess drug-related problems (DRPs) documented by specially trained community pharmacists during the Finnish comprehensive medication review (CMR) procedure and to describe the resulting interventions for home-dwelling and assisted-living primary care patients 65 years or older.

Methods: Retrospective analysis of applicable written CMR case reports for primary care patients 65 years or older by 26 community pharmacists attending a 1.5-year CMR accreditation training (174 patients recruited; 121 included in the analysis).

Comparison of prescribing criteria to evaluate the appropriateness of drug treatment in individuals aged 65 and older: a systematic review.

Because inappropriate prescribing is prevalent in individuals aged 65 and older, various criteria to assess it have been developed. This study's aim was to systematically review articles that describe criteria for assessing inappropriate prescribing in individuals aged 65 and older and to define the circumstances of their use (explicit/implicit), origins, development processes, and content. A systematic search was conducted on MEDLINE and PubMed (1990-2010) and augmented with a manual search.

Continuing education course to attain collaborative comprehensive medication review competencies.

Objective: To implement a long-term continuing education course for pharmacy practitioners to acquire competency in and accreditation for conducting collaborative comprehensive medication reviews (CMRs).

Design: A 1(1/2)- year curriculum for practicing pharmacists that combined distance learning (using e-learning tools) and face-to-face learning was created. The training consisted of 5 modules: (1) Multidisciplinary Collaboration; (2) Clinical Pharmacy and Pharmacotherapy; (3) Rational Pharmacotherapy; (4) CMR Tools; and (5) Optional Studies.