Any Health Professionals here?

I have four questions that I need to ask a health official (doctor, nurse, pharamacist, anything in the health field) for my Antibiotic Resistance biology project.

These are the questions. The answers can be short, and to the point. They don't need to be huge paragraphs. :)

1) Unfinished prescriptions: Why is it important to finish all prescriptions?

2) Prevalence of antibiotics: How often do you prescribe antibiotics?

3) Prevalence of infectious disease: What can you tell me about the incidence of infectious disease over the past few years?

Bump :)

Woohoo! Ask a nurse and get a heated answer! I work with older people so medication problems make me very testy.

Unfinished prescriptions: Why is it important to finish all prescriptions?
Can I flip it around a bit, BC MoM? Why is a patient unlikely to finish an antibiotic prescription? That’s a much easier question for me to answer.

“Because I took the first few doses and I feel better.” Well, great! As a nurse, I’m glad the person feels better. Finishing all the medication ensures that the drug has the best chance of completely wiping out the infection being treated.

“Because it was really expensive and I want to have a few around in case I get these symptoms again.” If the person does develop these symptoms again, treating them with a medication the person have on hand is probably nto a good idea. Medications can decrease in potency if kept around for a long time. The next time the person develops these symptoms, it could be caused by a different bacterium, one that’s not susceptible to this medication, so taking it might not help. If the person starts treating himself or herself with an old drug before seeing a health care provider, and then a lab culture is required, the culture may not be completely accurate because of the medication the person began taking on their own. (That’s why you get a throat swab before you start an anti-infective for strep throat, for example.) If the person is having trouble affording a medication purchase, there are steps a health care provider can take to work around that. A health care provider might be able to prescribe a cheaper alternative. (S)he might be able to get pharmaceutical samples, or find a patient assistance program the person can work with to get their needed medications.

“Because it has unpleasant side effects.” The person should talk to their provider or pharmacist about these. Embarrassing, maybe, but far better than stopping the drug early. If the drug tastes awful, the pharmacist might be able to add a flavoring agent to it. If a stomach ache, diarrhea or a yeast infection occurred after starting an antibiotic, the antibiotic might be killing off the “good” bacteria normally present in the system. I worked with a doctor who, every time he wrote a patient an order for an antibiotic, would also write an order to the dietitian to send the patient a serving of yogurt on each meal tray. This would replace the “good” bacteria in the digestive tract being killed off by the antibiotic, which do not know what organisms to kill and what to leave alone. People who get queasy from the active cultures in yogurt might try kefir instead.

“Because I’m taking so many medications already, I got confused when I added one more.” If this happens, the person can gather up all those pharmacy bottles, toss them into a brown paper bag and have a conversation with their health care provider or pharmacist. The person and their doctor (or nurse practitioner or physician assistant, if applicable), the office nurses, or the pharmacist should be able to help the person sort out what’s what. When I worked on the units we used to coach patients to review all of their medications at each visit with each doctor, so there would be no question about medications being taken.

That’s the end of my soap box on medication practices. I think it’s even more true of older people, who might be less likely to ask questions of an authority figure like a doctor or pharmacist. I have two parents who call me when they're confused about what they just brought home from the doctor or pharmacy ... so I know it's true in at least one house in Illinois :)

Good luck! Will you let us know how it turns out?
Thanks,
Elyse

Bump

bump again ... surely I'm not the only health care member of Pet Talk ... let's help BC MoM with this project !

Question One: Always finish the antibiotic prescription because then the organism that is causing the problem should be gone. If not finished, then the organism can grow back and a reinfection can occur.

Question Two: As a RN, I do not prescribe medications. However, in this country, I think there is an over dosing of antibiotics thus creating the superbugs that are resistant to the regular antibiotics.


Question Three: Cannot help you there, have you tried to see any research on the internet.

Good luck with your project!!