Essential tips for caregivers on safe and effective medication management.
Part 1: “The Notebook - What is my diagnosis?”
Written by Leigh-Ann Richards, Occupational Therapist
Leigh-Ann Richards is a Senior Clinical Educator in the Department of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences in the Faculty of Health Sciences, Occupational Therapy Division.
In this three-part blog series, we hear from Leigh- Ann Richards, an occupational therapist, who has been working in both a professional and personal capacity with patients and older persons. She writes about the complexities and work involved in managing medications. Her thoughts and observations are based on her experience working with patients at multiple levels in the health system, and in people’s homes as well as her own personal experience of caring for her elderly parents.
So, the first thing when it comes to managing medication is, you need to have an understanding of what your diagnosis is, and this is really important. A lot of doctors don’t put in the time to explain to patients what they’ve been diagnosed with and so sometimes when you are in the doctor’s office you can get flustered because you have been waiting in the waiting room. You might be just overwhelmed with all the things you’ve had to do before you get in the room, so it becomes really easy to be overwhelmed and not remember everything that someone is saying.
The first thing you need to do when you are accessing health care is to buy an A4 little notebook and pen. Take those with you into the room. I would actually say just record the conversation between you and your doctor if you have got a cell phone and a video recorder function but I know a lot of doctors would be very adverse to that and they won’t be happy with that. But there is nothing wrong and you are within your right to take with you a little book and pen. The first thing you need to write in that page, is you need to ask the doctor “What is my diagnosis?”. This is important not only for you to know as a patient, it is your body and you have a right to know what impairment you have, but it is also important when you are interacting with other health professionals.
Maybe you get referred to the physio, OT or a social worker, a pharmacist or any other health professional. It is really important for you to be able to tell them confidently what your diagnosis is. And then in this little book, whenever you are interacting with any health professional, start a fresh page, put the date on top, put the name of the health professional this is important. You have a right to ask the person: “What is your name and surname?”. Sometimes especially when it comes to public health facilities, no one knows the doctors name, and this is really important information for other professionals because when you come to us after you have been referred that is what we need to know. We need to know the doctors’ name; we need to know your diagnosis and we need to have a telephone number or at least the name of the facility. Because then at least when we need to go and find out more information quickly, we can look up the facility, get the doctor and ask on the phone “please can you get me through to Dr Brown”, or whatever.
This notebook is really important to have, as a family make sure you keep that notebook safe. If you are not able to write you are within your right to ask the doctor, “please can you write down what you are telling me in my own notebook”, the doctor will of course have to do their own record keeping in the pink folder or whatever colour the folder is in the facility. But you are within your right to ask the doctor. This is especially if there is a language barrier, you are allowed to ask the doctor what your diagnosis is, what is their name and what is the name of the facility that you are in, that is a really important starting point.
The reason why this little notebook is so important is because, unfortunately, records sometimes get lost in hospitals, so this is almost like you helping all the health professionals that you are seeing to keep them connected. Because often what happens is that you go to one health professional, they say one thing and you go to the other they say something else, and it really gets confusing. It is really difficult for records to be transferred because some facilities still work on paper and some work with electronics, on the computer. So, your little notebook is really the one thing that helps your health professionals and maybe not even health professionals, to have a conversation with each other.
That is why I said it is important to start a fresh page when you deal with different people; the date is really important because when it comes to diagnosis and other health professionals, sometimes having a date helps us in terms of prognosis, it helps us in terms of giving us a timeline in terms of pathology and that is really important when it comes to providing care because we need to have a full picture. This notebook is important as well because it also helps you to have a conversation with your loved ones when you are not able to. Keep this notebook safe, make sure that someone who is helping with your care has access to this notebook. This has to go into your bag whenever you are accessing health services. If someone has to phone the ambulance, this notebook goes with them into the ambulance with you because this is almost like your bodies way of communicating with other people if and when you are not able to.