Question:
Discuss about the Oral Antidiabetic Medication Adherence.
Patients who suffer from diabetes often need special attention and close monitoring because of their medical situations and conditions. Therefore, the diabetic adult patients need assistance to take medications because, firstly, adult patients are at times not able to manage effectively the condition through adhering to the prescribed medication from the clinical officers. This is because they tend choose their medication and use the one they feel like taking because some may be illiterate and this poses them to other medical problems. Due to this, attention for them need to be adhered to so that they can stick to their medications.
Secondly, patient-provider communication is another challenge that patients face. Due to different understanding capacities, the provider may not be able to explain how medication should be taken due to communication barriers and not giving full details of how, when and to what level it should be taken; therefore close attention should be kept to the patients (Mamkin & Ten, 2008)
Thirdly, the side effects or consequences need to be kept clear to the patient because overdose or under dose can be toxic to the body and therefore older patients should be attended to and should not be left alone as they may overdose, under dose or misuse the medication which is not healthy to them. The combination of the two devices makes it easy to administer medication to the patients because the combination is fast and works more efficiently on the patient. It’s also reminds you the action one needs to do or take to the patient.
This population needs special attention in order to sustain and maintain their health conditions, the routine of medication, increasing communications so that they may stick to their medical line. Lot is needed in order to cure and provide relieve to the diabetic problems, educating them and also training them will help in adapting healthy lifestyles, having self-control and participating in educational meetings and seminars concerning the issues of coping with diabetes as well as self-evaluation of the knowledge about the disease.
The population need to be educated on the benefits of sticking to medications and adhere to them because it’s for their own benefits and wellbeing. Therefore, the clinical practitioners need to take part in educating the community the importance of finishing the prescribed dose in order to live healthy (Rockwood & Mitnitski,2007). They should also read and understand the information given to them by the clinical officers because it’s from that message that will help them practice healthy living. In case they don’t understand the information, they should seek assistance and interpretation from caregivers.
Older patients should be attended to carefully especially those who cannot read the medical prescriptions to understand the requirements clearly. In case it happens that they don’t adhere to the medication routine, assistance should be rendered to them in a professional way by the caregiver or doctor.
This technology is commonly applied to the diabetic patients who need special attention medical and while in use, the older adult should be assisted and attended to when using the machines because of their complexities and technical requirements for their operations. Moreover, the machines are useful because they keep the patient updated of the latest changes in the blood sugar, time for medication and also the tracking record of the changes of the diabetic level of the patient. Elderly people should be assisted and given all the necessary support to ensure full medication compliance is adhered to. They also help in determining when the next dose will be administered.
The strengths of using this technology are the advantages that come along with it to the patient(s) and those monitoring them if they are not able to take care of them in one way or another. It has made it easy while injecting medication into the blood by making it simpler then when it was not available. Secondly, it has made it easy for the patient or the elders to keep track of their sugar levels and provide them with the necessary steps they need to take to bring down or regulate its level. Moreover, the technology has been of importance to the patient while monitoring the glucose level which is an essential while managing diabetics by allowing them to see the impact of the measures they need to take to control their diabetes.
With the new inventions in medications, people can now go for medical checkups and create awareness among those around them. If they get tested and realize that they have symptoms, it’s advisable for them to begin medications with immediate effect to curb the growth and development of the disease. This will also help them in keeping tracks of their diets and changes in their lifestyles so that they could practice healthy living ways, adhering to medication and also reading the instructions given by their doctors. It also helps to inform the clinician and the patient how well the medications are working and responding, among others.
However, despite the advancement in technology, it has brought a lot of challenges that have affected the patient in one way or another. The technology is costly and thus requires a lot of finances to afford or access them. This has been a challenge for patient to access them and end up dying or spending a lot in order to get cured. Therefore, the caregiver should keep watching and attending to the patient because of their medical situations and requirements. Majority of the patients are not familiar with the machines or devices thus they need attendance from either a clinical officer, nurses or an adult who understands them well and how to administer them to the patients. They should therefore be trained on how to use the medications, machines and reading the prescriptions well to understand what’s required for them to do incase their caregivers or doctors are not available.
Patients may also lack sufficient education on how results are interpreted so that they may use home testing equipment. Therefore, thorough education and sensitization is necessary because it’s from this information and prescription that will determine the health state of the patient. Caregivers thus need to educate the patient how to apply the medication ,when or after a given period of time and to which level the patient should take. Thruogh this, the health states of the patient will improve and get better.
Caregivers should also be spearheaded in ensuring that they introduce new things or activities that are meant to boast the health conditions of the patient like exercising daily which include light chores; and the change in the diets to boast the immune of the body. Practising all these ensures physical fitness of the patient’s body reflecting an improvement in the state of the body. Others include physical pain while pricking the fingers, being anxious about one’s blood sugar control and heath states.
As a result of technological advancements in diabetic treatments, it has brought about many opportunities among them employment of many medical practioners and clinicians, expansions of medical facilities to handle the ever increasing number of diabetic patients who need specialized treatment and also training facilities to train those who will be attending to the diabetic patients who are not educated on how to take medication and use the tools and equipment they are provided. Due to the introduction to these technological advancements in the health system, the technology has made many patients machine-driven because they can’t do without them. This has led to many patients to be machine sustained and making them not to do their daily duties and chores as they used to do before they got sick (Chowdhury, 2002)
The technology has exposed many diabetic patients to other chronic diseases something that has increased the cost of treatment for the patients thus adding a burden onto the patient. Adherence to medication need to be addressed and improved so that the patient s should stick to their medications. Consequently, clinical officers, physicians, doctors and the pharmacists should develop and implement necessary tools encourage the patients adherence routine.
Technological advancement for diabetics are a tremendous step a country undertakes in order to care and treat its citizens and therefore it should be availed in a country. However, this has not been the case with many states because many reasons that makes it not to be possible. Firstly, the cost of acquiring the implements and the equipment may be too high for a country to afford as the expenses involved. This is because if the economic state of a country is not stable, finances for acquiring them which makes it had to have them. This has led to many patients seeking to medication from outside countries.
Secondly, the level of knowledge and skills required to run, operate and administer medication to patients may be insufficient for a state to acquire them from the states that have advanced. Due to this, it becomes hard to develop them (Osterberg, 2005). Cultural beliefs and practices at times may hinder the advancement in the medical field because people attribute traditional medicines to be the only cure for diabetes (McGuigan,2005).This has led to less developments in the field of medicine thus patients are made to use the old ways of curing the disease. Patients suffer because the traditional medicines don’t perform accurately.
Cost of treatment and acquiring the medication in a country maybe very high for the locals to afford the cost and treatment which is hard for the local residents to seek medical help and they opt to fly upcountry where they get diagnosed at low costs and with high standards of professionalism (Bryson, 2009).This has been a major trend which is on the rise within the past couple of years. This is also attributed to the insufficient facilities to handle the rising number of patients who need medical checkups and attentions and they therefore choose to fly outside the country to where they will get better services and medications.
Political instability in a country deters development by scaring away potential investors who could have invested in that field in order to care for the diabetic patients. Other forces that can deter its implementations include resistance from the community, unfavorable laws set up in a country among others.
Unequal distribution of the national resources and marginalization of other parts of the state makes it hard for the country or state not to develop equally. This is because when funds and other resources are being distributed by the government, areas with powerful leaders tend to take a large portion than those with little powers. This leads to cases of unequal regional imbalances leading to wrangles between the two neighboring communities. This may lead to cases of insecurity, seasonal wars and retardation in developments.
Costs are the expenses that are incurred as a result of seeking services and acquiring them. Costs can be direct or indirect depending on how they are incurred. In our case, indirect costs are costs associated with acquisition of the technological devices in the treatment of diabetes. The issues associated with indirect costs are increase in the cost of medical services to the client or patient, the caregiver who monitors and attends to patients and the costs of travelling to seek medical services at times may be seen as an added load to the patient who may raise concerns about them (Blaum, 2008).
Despite the high cost of using and acquiring the machines or the new technology in diabetics, it has brought about a new revolution in the diabetic field because monitoring of old elders and those who are not literate about them has become easy. Caregivers and other medical practioners have been able to help patients adhere to the medication. Moreover, patients have been able to monitor the sugar levels and also sticking to their medical routines which has helped patients, caregivers and doctors the opportunity of keeping tracks of the medical performance.
As a result of continued use of modern technology in the diabetic patients, it has made it easy to use and apply the right medication to the right illness because of its accessibility has been made easier to the local patients. Self-medication has been adopted by patients who are able to read and understand the requirements and instructions provided which has helped the caregiver and doctor an opportunity to explore better and more advanced medical services and practices. Patients can keep track of their medications because its usability is easy and applications of medication has been simplified. However, despite all the advancement, not all patients are able to access them because they may be expensive which makes it hard for them to access them. This has been a challenge to the patients, caregivers and the doctors. Caregivers have to share the devices with many patients something that can cause delays in services delivery. Consequently, some patients may not be able to understand the usability of the devices because they may not be able to understand and interpret the information given to them. This has been a challenge to the caregivers and the doctors thus ending up using a lot of time attending to one or few patients thus leaving others unattended.
Cultural practices have been a major challenge in the medical field and with time need to be addressed so as to align the old practices into modern ways of dealing with the diseases among different ethnic groups. Medical practitioners should identify each patients or ethnical cultural practices and perception of their shared cultural practices, their own individual belief and how they affect their behaviors (Csordas, 2002).Therefore, it’s necessary to look and analyze ways of introducing the new medical practices and how to make it friendly to the society. By careful studying the needs and expectations of the society, it’s important to make steps of educating the people the new ways of life and how to deal with different people from different environments.
Clinical officers including care givers should not assume cultural beliefs, instead those working with the knowledge that culture is dynamic and subjective need to create or come up with individualized plans according to each patient’s needs according to the culture (Flemming, 2009).They should be friendly and not show their total efforts in ensuring their wellbeing is given priority. Moreover, identifying and understanding other cultures and how people relate individually to their own culture enhance communications and understanding with people from different cultures. Thus, culture should not be a barrier to health education. Therefore, medical practioners should be spearheaded in promoting physical activities while understanding cultural beliefs; and barriers and perceptions can allow the clinical officers to give and share advices to individual needs and allowing patients to access medical services with ease.
The medical field has been able to make steps ahead and should be supported with all the available resources to see to it that it has reached many people. However, there are many challenges in the field and they need to be recommended prior to avoid future misunderstanding among the practioners in the field. Patients need to have their legal capacities of managing their own affairs regarding the field of medication without influencing anybody (Lau, 2004). I recommend that those in the medical field need to treat their colleagues with respect of both individual and their cultural beliefs, collaborating with other professionals in resolving ethical disagreements, that could have emerged in the line of performing duties, consulting their colleagues for advice, guidance and clarifications when it is in the best interest of the patient among others. They should work hard to ensure that they put their interests aside and put that of the society they are representing ahead by working hand in hand and team building so that they move together ahead without leaving others behind or having one region of the society developed while the other one left behind something that may trigger violence.
As a medical practitioner, it’s your responsibility of maintaining the profession integrity because issues like competence, dishonesty and fraud, dealing with personal issues such as psychological impairment, substance abuse, among others, can arise and ways should be available to deal with them amicably like a profession. This will enhance public to feel appreciated and that it does not side line them despite their cultural practices and activities. Moreover, as a profession, one should be committed to the welfare of the society by promoting social justice and the welfare of the public, and they should avoid participation in activities that can promote inequality or any form of discrimination among the members. Thus engaging in social work like political and social actions that ultimately help in reducing barriers or indifferences and promotes the betterment of the society and social in general. With all these put in place, the society will develop and all people will feel important and part of the big family practicing same cultural activities and beliefs, each individual not feeling side lined of neglected. This fosters peace and development in the society (Osterberg & Blaschke, 2005).
For many years now, diabetes has been a deadly killer disease worldwide. Despite this challenge, it has been a milestone for Scientists to come up with modern devices for controlling the levels of diabetes among the patients. The trends in the field include introduction of enhanced devices like the blood glucose monitoring devices, for example the cell phone-enhanced meters, plug-and-play devices, among others; and also increased awareness about this disease(Dreyer,2009).
Modern improved devices like the blood glucose monitoring has been a major improvement in the diabetic field of treatment because it has helped in regulating the levels of blood and sugar in patients. They have been made available to patient which has helped them keep track of their blood sugar levels and medications without being assisted by the caregiver or the doctors. Despite their initial high cost of acquiring them, patients can now access them and use them comfortably at their convenience. Through this, medication has been made cheap. These devices like the cell phone-enhanced meters which are plugged into the phones have made it easy to administer medication. This trend has given the caregivers and the doctors the chance to attend to other patients who are not able to use and access the devices (Bean, 2007).
The increased awareness that has been created by the media and the social workers has made it clear for people to be aware of the existence of the disease. This has led to many people taking action of being tested of the disease and being educated on the necessary steps they need to take in case they are suffering from the disease. However, cultural practices have been acting as hindrances while addressing this issue but due to the community social workers who have taken the initiative of educating people by accepting the differences in cultural practices and focusing on the development of their society. Through this projects, people combine their efforts to care for the sick ones, the less privileged and those who practice old cultural practices. With the combined efforts, professionals are able to administer their help and efforts for the welfare of the society. They organize activities like sporting activities and projects meant to educate people of this deadly disease and what they are supposed to do in case they contract the condition. They get the opportunity of learning the new technology dealing with this menace (Sokol, 2005).
Combining all the efforts available in the society, it will build a strong foundation for the society to deal according with the disease among the people. Sick people are also involved in the developments of the society and through them the society will learn from them, handle them the way they are without rejecting them and also assisting them financially in case things get thick for them.
Technological advancements have implied challenges for those who will use it in the future because of its complexity in using. This is because it combines a lot of complex things that will make it hard to understand something that may hinder proper performance of the medications and its applications. This will lead to investing a lot of finances in acquiring the devices, the caregivers and also the doctor at large (Chen, 2013).
Young people often tend to ignore the prescribed recommendations on medical administrations which exposes them to health hazards which could have been prevented earlier if only they could have taken into precaution all the prescriptions (David C., Kendrick D. 2004). With time, more innovations are being invented and innovated leaving behind the outdated devices. Due to this, a lot of resources need to be invested in the field which may lead to financial constrains leading to the crippling of the economy. This will make it hard for the seniors to afford the devices and other expenses accrued to medications (Crivelli, 2016).
Different devices take time before they are introduced into the market and this takes time. Due to this, those in need of them will suffer or continue using the old model something that may lead to more health complications leading to increased costs of medication. Insufficient knowledge and understanding makes it hard for them to read and understand the requirements of the devices something that can lead to misusing the devices, medications and also adherence of the patient. This makes it hard for the senior population to get through the disease. Modern technology has made the young population to be internet ‘slaves’ because they look for solutions from the internet instead of following what’s in the ground for them to use and follow.
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