I’ve worked in hospitals, in retail pharmacies, in home health, and now in long-term care.  I like my work enough but the current practice settings can be a real downer.  In spite of regulations and laws to protect the elderly and the care home residents, neglect and abuse are still prevalent.  I’m not referring to physical abuse but verbal abuse and omission abuse.  Some doctors don’t want to care for nursing home residents so they don’t make visits and they take their time when contacted.

As a consultant, I visit nursing homes monthly to review charts and make recommendations related to drug therapies.  Over the course of time, I hope to post some of these sad cases.  These are things to think about when you commit an elderly parent to a nursing home.  If you are not there to advocate for your parent, pray that the facility’s pharmacist is one who really cares.  But there is not much a pharmacist can do when he can only visit a facility once monthly.

Professionally submitted,

Omnimom