GeneralCan Home Care Workers Administer Medication?

For the most part, home care workers have been known to help clients with daily personal hygiene, housekeeping, and social support. Yet, most of their clients who require assistance also need daily medications.

Medication is a necessary medical need for clients, and whether a home care worker can administer it is important to know. Someone who is not equipped to administer medication can pose harmful risks.

It begs the question: can home care workers administer medication?

Learn about home care workers’ relationship with handling clients’ medication and whether they’re deemed capable of administering it.

The Expertise of a Home Care Worker

Typically, it’s assumed that to be able to administer medication takes some level of higher education. It’s why you usually see nurses being the ones to distribute them or doctors and physicians along with anyone certified as a medication technician. However, these medical professionals are not the only ones who can give medication to someone.

You would be surprised that most people can administer medication. However, non-medical professionals have certain conditions that apply to them.

Since home care workers’ work overlaps with the medical needs of clients, they are required to have a higher education to be able to do so. The training and education they need to become a home care worker involve receiving an accredited credential. You can expect them to have earned either a post-secondary degree, diploma, or even a certificate.

In this case, home care workers can legally administer medication to clients as long as it’s from a professional health practitioner and has been given permission to do so from them and the client.

With that being said, home care workers are expected to meet certain standards and protocols when administering medication. Generally, they’re expected to follow proper procedures with medication instructions while keeping a paper trail by reporting and recording to keep them accountable.

The Importance of Medication in Home Care

Ultimately, clients are looking to home care workers to assist them in ways they can no longer do. One of those tasks is taking medication. There are various reasons why clients might not be able to give themselves their medication.

Most home care clients are the elderly. Unfortunately, some of them end up developing cognitive issues that result in them becoming more forgetful and easily confused, especially those diagnosed with either Alzheimers or dementia.

It becomes easily overwhelming for them to factor in how and when to take medication and various others. The mixture of different pills can make it hard for them to keep track, resulting in either many missed doses or side effects from taking medication under the wrong conditions.

Furthermore, home care workers aren’t only assisting the elderly. They also facilitate the care of those with special needs. Special needs individuals with limited cognition can have a home care worker administer their medication.

Since some special needs individuals might not be capable of remembering to take their medication or dislike doing so, that’s where the help of a home care worker comes in. Home care workers are adept at communicating with special needs individuals and can get them to consent on their own accord to taking medication. For the most part, it’s not in good practice to force medication on a client, regardless of whether they’re elderly or those with special needs.

Client Agency with Medication

Home care is not only to assist clients with their needs but also to retain their agency. After all, many opt for home care because of it. In which case, if a client is insistent on taking medication themself, they can take some responsibility for that. Home care workers can help by doing the following:

• Boxed devices with days and times
• Only supplying medications in small, regular amounts
• Clear instructions in large print

Home care workers are fulfilling a client’s need for independence by providing the tools for clients to administer medication. Home care promotes independence for its clients, which makes consent essential for administering medication. Medication is important to take, but forcing it for the client’s own good isn’t proper practice. Anyone who forces a client to take medication via coercion or secretly puts it into food or drinks violates their consent. The only thing a home care worker can do when clients refuse to take vital medication is to notify medical professionals and family about it.

Home care is a versatile service that can provide so much for the elderly and those with special needs. Medication becomes a basic need for these clients, and home care workers are equipped to administer it with the client’s permission and medical professional. Medication administration is just another need that home care workers can provide competently to their clients.

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