Abstract Detail

Abstract

In 1985, Surgeon General C. Everett Koop stated: “Drugs don’t work in patients who don’t take them”. Best outcomes in healthcare rely on evidence-based treatments and adherence to those treatments. The evidence, however, tells us that levels of adherence are frequently less than ideal. Regardless of condition or chronicity, adherence is the most important modifiable influence on treatment outcome. Patients, health care providers, researchers, insurers, and policymakers are interested in ensuring that effective medication therapies are utilized as prescribed to promote best-outcomes. Thus, it is important for healthcare providers, nurses, patients, and families to understand the causes and consequences of medication nonadherence, and the methods for monitoring medication adherence. An aging population requires a shift in focus from acute illness to chronic disease management; thus, the issue of poor medication adherence is a principal worry in the healthcare system. Chronic illnesses typically require complex treatment regimens of extended duration that increase the potential for poor medication adherence. Despite the condition or chronicity, medication adherence is the most influential factor in treatment outcome. Poor adherence renders any therapy useless.

Biography

Dr. Barbara De Groot graduated in 1992 with her associate degree in nursing and holds a  Doctor of Nursing Practice degree from the University of Missouri, Kansas City. Her nursing experience spans multidisciplinary staff and patient education; acute, hospice, and home health nursing; hospital discharge planning and education; supervisor, manager, and directorship positions; and teaching in ADN and BSN programs. Her areas of nursing research focus on medication adherence in older adults and reducing falls in adults aged 65 and older by improving fall risk assessment. She is an internationally recognized speaker on falls, fall-risk assessment, patient safety, and the author of a recently published article on fall-risk assessment. Her current research examines the fall risk assessment practices in licensed assisted living communities in New Mexico.