Medication Administration By Family Members of Dependent Elders In Shared Care Arrangements

Twenty-three long-term care family caregivers whose care-recipients were enrolled in adult day care programs participated in face-to-face, semistructured interviews designed to learn more about their medication administration experiences. Two distinct styles of decision making were identified: self-directed and physician-directed. To help them with their medication administration responsibility, both groups used primary (physicians, pharmacists, or both) and secondary sources of information (the internet, information hotlines, nurses, more experienced caregivers, and family members with health backgrounds). Self-directed caregivers, who were significantly younger than the physician-directed caregivers, were twice as likely to report use of secondary sources of information to manage their medication administration tasks. Secondary sources of information appear to be important for the development of a caregiver's maturation and critical thinking skills over the long term and need more attention from formal providers in shared care relationships with family caregivers.