We come across many patients in our lives that are on long term medication. Keeping a track of their medicines at times becomes a real task and most of the time it results in poor compliance of the patients. After all who wants to take all the big pack of pills three times a day for years and years??
In such scenarios, medication logs are of great help because they help you keep a track of the medication and also result in better compliance with the patient. If a patient of some chronic illness gets his medicine regularly, only then he is able to either get rid of the disease or at least avoid the consequences and complications of the chronic ailments.
Diabetes, for example, is a disease that requires a lot of constant management at every moment of life. If a diabetic patient is on insulin therapy and he has to take those subcutaneous injections three times a day, there are chances that he starts losing interest. There are also high chances of the patient to stop taking his insulin at all. He might forget when the last time he took his medicine was. So, keeping a track makes it easier to remember the last dose and if it was administered or not is beneficial in many ways.
Medication logs are available in many forms now. You can choose what suits you the best. But if you think you can track your medication routine by yourself, then a self-medication log is for you. This log contains all the things that are required for the maintenance of the record with respect to medicines. It also tells us the route of administration. This way, one can track down the medication and its effects on the body. This medication log can also be produced at the time of doctor visit so that he knows what is going on with the disease of his patient even if the doctor is not around all the time.
In a patient medication log, one has to write the name of the patient, his age, gender, and his main diagnosis. For example, a patient of diabetes will have to write a diagnosis at the top of the patient medication log.
After that, we can find some columns and rows given for the data entry. This data is the routine that we are going to follow while on a long term medication. For example, the first column is for the date where we write down the date on which medication is being given. In front of the date, we will write the name of the medicine in its generic form. The dose of the medication can also be written if the patient knows exactly. If the attendant is the one who is administering the drug, he or she can also fill the form.
The route of administration of the drug is very important. If a diabetic patient is keeping a medication log, he will still write how he took the medication. In the end, a column is left for the side effects or later observations regarding the medication.
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