Care Certificate | Frailty Tier 2a | Medicines

Medicines
Produced in partnership with the London Clinical Networks, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust and Wessex Academic Science Network.

About the session
This session is a brief overview of medicines in relation to frailty and is not an in-depth review of the topic. It is intended to raise awareness. Greater, specialised clinical expertise is needed where a medicines review is to be carried out, especially in older adults with frailty.

It should help you increase your awareness around medicines and their impact on frailty which will help to enforce the importance of medication adherence. Susceptibility to side-effects of medication is a frailty syndrome so it is necessary to understand to minimise harm.

There are potential risks from medicines which can be increased through the use of multiple medicines (polypharmacy). You will be offered guidance on what to do when medicines-related problems occur and how they can be identified.

This session does not ensure someone is skilled to prescribe medicines at the end of it. This does not replace any prescribers competency-based education and training.

At the end of this session you will be able to:

• explain the impact of medicines on frailty
• explain the importance of adherence to medicines
• describe the potential risks of harm from individual medicines and polypharmacy
• explain the influence that pharmacokinetics can have on frailty 
• describe the interaction between frailty syndromes and medicines
• explain what to do when medicines-related problems are identified