The multidisciplinary medication team - a nursing point of view

Abstract

The role of the Multidisciplinary Team involved in the assessment and rehabilitation of the elderly is well publicised. That of the team involved in assessment and aiding drug compliance is less so, and yet cooperation and co-ordination between this team will do much to reduce re-admission to acute elderly care units due to drug abuses. In the past the situation was such that the medical practitioner made his diagnosis and prescribed the appropriate medication, the pharmacist dispensed the drugs and the nurse on ward administered them. On discharge from hospital the patient was handed his take home medication and there the hospital's responsibility ended.