Managing Multiple Medications and Their Packaging for Older People in Home Care Nursing: An Interview Study

Home care nurses assist older people in their daily living and well-being, including medication management. Medication management can be challenging for older people with functional constraints and several chronic conditions. This paper presents how home care nurses manage medications and their packaging for older people at their homes. This study followed an explorative qualitative research design, in which semi-structured interviews were conducted with home care nurses in Sweden (n = 14). The study revealed that home care nurses need to coordinate a multitude of interrelated tasks, with documentation being paramount. Regarding medication management, automated systems were preferred, as they reduce medication errors and facilitate dispensing of medications for each patient when compared with analogue systems still in use (i.e., dosing boxes), commonly used by older people. Importantly, the lack of a common journal system for updates on prescribed medication among health care providers and analogue communication still in place creates space for outdated prescription of medications for patients. There are opportunities for further investigation on how technology can help home care nurses in coordinating medication management tasks with other health care providers, and on receiving updates about medication intake by older patients when the nurse is not at their homes.

Social work in palliative care

Palliative social work is an evolving specialty which continues to be enriched by practitioners globally. Social workers practise in diverse settings and have the opportunity to extend palliative care values and processes beyond hospitals and hospices to home care, nursing homes, prisons, and senior centres. This chapter discusses social work values and core principles as a foundation upon which to integrate palliative care, creating a rich opportunity to serve patients, families, teams, institutions, and communities. It begins with an introduction to the history of social work in palliative care and moves on to discuss the convergence and synergy of social work and palliative care, and the need to create models of care to meet global needs. Assessment and interventions are introduced with attention to confidentiality, culture, family meetings, and the roles and responsibilities within team work. Finally, a patient family narrative is presented.

Malnutrition Is Associated With Impaired Functional Status in Older People Receiving Home Care Nursing Service

Objective: This study aimed to explore the magnitude and significance of associations among nutritional status, functional status, comorbidities, age, and gender in older adults receiving assistance from the in-home nursing care service.Method: In this cross-sectional study, 210 home-dwelling persons 65 years or older who received in-home nursing care service were evaluated. Demographic variables, nutritional status, comorbidities, and the dependency levels of activities of daily living were analyzed. To assess the correlation among the factors that influence nutritional status, a theoretical model was developed and adjusted using the path analysis model.Results: The primary finding is that functional status is directly associated with nutritional status (β = 0.32; p < 0.001) and severity of comorbidities is indirectly associated with nutritional status (β = −0.07; p < 0.017).Conclusion: The elicited outcomes in this study reinforce the concept that nutritional status is linked with functional status in older adults receiving in-home care nursing service.