Drugs and aging: An interdisciplinary patient-centered activity to enhance student knowledge and confidence in identifying and managing medication problems in elderly patients

While medication prescription is outside of chiropractic's scope of practice, polypharmacy is the principle drug safety issue in the US, particularly in older adults. Medications used concurrently with chiropractic care for musculoskeletal pain have a number of side effects and risks. It is important for the chiropractor to be competent in assessing the older patient's medications and communicating effectively with prescribing providers when medication issues put patients' health at risk.

This presentation will describe an interdisciplinary patient-based educational activity wherein a pharmacist leads chiropractic students through a comprehensive medication assessment on an elderly patient. PowerPoints and handouts point out commonly used musculoskeletal medications and their risks. Cohorts of 84, 120 and 135 students completed pre-and post-assessments to evaluate their knowledge/confidence in: 1) Taking a complete medication history 2) commonly used medications for musculoskeletal pain and their risks, and 3) effective interdisciplinary communication related to medication issues.

Descriptive statistics on the first cohort of students indicated that student knowledge significantly improved after this activity (1.5 points on a 4 point Likert scale), related to medications/risks. Student confidence in taking a medication history and communicating to prescribing providers also increased significantly (1.25 pts on a 4 pt Likert scale) after this activity. Student comments revealed that the two most useful aspects of this activity were the patient-centered and interdisciplinary approach.

Statistics on the combined 3 cohorts will be offered in this presentation, along with a summary of the student commentary related to the value of this patient-centered interdisciplinary approach in chiropractic education.