Nurse-led medication management as a critical component of transitional care for preventing drug-related problems

Abstract

Drug-related problems (DRPs) are critical medical issues during transition from hospital to home with high prevalence. The application of a variety of interventional strategies as part of the transitional care has been studied for preventing DRPs. However, it remains challenging for minimizing DRPs in patients, especially in older adults and those with high risk of medication discrepancies after hospital discharge. In this narrative review, we demonstrated that age, specific medications and polypharmacy, as well as some patient-related and system-related factors all contribute to a higher prevalence of transitional DPRs, most of which could be largely prevented by enhancing nurse-led multidisciplinary medication reconciliation. Nurses’ contributions during transitional period for preventing DRPs include information collection and evaluation, communication and education, enhancement of medication adherence, as well as coordination among healthcare professionals. We concluded that nurse-led strategies for medication management can be implemented to prevent or solve DRPs during the high-risk transitional period, and subsequently improve patients’ satisfaction and health-related outcomes, prevent the unnecessary loss and waste of medical expenditure and resources, and increase the efficiency of the multidisciplinary teamwork during transitional care.