Patients and providers should take the medications safety quiz

It’s the end of Canadian Patient Safety Week and Alberta Health Services is promoting this year’s theme of ‘medications safety’ as an ongoing priority for AHS patients and staff.

Important health advice we hear from a young age includes to eat healthy, exercise regularly and get a good night’s sleep. But important health advice we sometimes don’t hear centres around medication safety. This year, The Canadian Patient Safety Institute is making it its mission to encourage patients and remind healthcare professionals about life-saving questions we should all ask about our medications.

Introducing Take With Questions. Our mission. Your life-saving reminder. All medications should be taken with questions. What are those questions?

Here are the five questions to ask about your medications:

1) Changes – have any medications been added, stopped or changed, and why?

2) Continue – what medications do I need to keep taking, and why?

3) Proper Use – how do I take my medications, and for how long?

4) Monitor – how will I know if my medication is working, and what sideeffects do I watch for?

5) Follow-up – Do I need any tests, and when do I book my next appointment?

This year, AHS is offering a test of medication safety expertise for both patients and health care providers. Can you reach the top tier of patient and provider excellence? Take the relevant quiz and find out! To find the quiz and a wealth of patient safety information, visit www.patientsafetyinstitute.ca and follow the Take with Questions link.

Patients, before you take your meds, take the quiz and put your knowledge of medication safety to the test. What kind of patient are you? Are you a Unicorn patient (legend has it you exist, but few health practitioners will ever encounter one of your kind in the course of their careers)? Or are you a Daredevil patient (living on the edge is for daredevils and lion tamers, not patients)? Have fun with the quiz! Play it again and improve your ranking. And don’t forget to share with friends on social media.

Health-care providers, before your patients take their meds, take the quiz and put your knowledge of medication safety to the test. As a health-care provider are you providing the safest care for your patients? Find out your medication safety level when you take the quiz. Will you be honoured with the Golden Stethoscope, or the Bronze Defibrillator? Either way, have fun with the quiz and share with your colleagues!

For patients and healthcare providers, you can share your quiz results with your friends, family, colleagues and staff by following #asklistentalk on Twitter and Facebook to see how you all rank against each other.