How can we get out the word about Beers criteria list of medication side effects in our elderly?
Beer’s Criteria for Potentially Inappropriate Medication Use in the Elderly Sheila Molony MS, APRN Dermatol Nurs. 2004; 16(6):547-548 [c]2004 Janetti Publications, Inc In the opening paragraph, the author began with an good lead-off sentence to stir readers interest about inappropriate medication use being a serious problem for the elderly. She then went on to reference some sources that could corroborate the problems but missed an opportunity to directly convey some specific reasons why this is a serious problem with the elderly. The introduction which cited three references could have been stronger if it provided factual information from these references on how the use of these medications adversely affected the health of the elderly. The “Best Tool” paragraph provided a good general introductory overview of the Beers criteria. It would have been helpful to cite Figure 1 at the end of the article which summarized medications with severe adverse outcomes cited from the Beers criteria.
Beer’s Criteria for Potentially Inappropriate Medication Use in the Elderly Sheila Molony MS, APRN Dermatol Nurs. 2004; 16(6):547-548 [c]2004 Janetti Publications, Inc The “Best Tool” paragraph provided a good general introductory overview of the Beers criteria. It would have been helpful to cite Figure 1 at the end of the article which summarized medications with severe adverse outcomes cited from the Beers criteria. In the “Validity and Reliability” paragraph, it would have been more meaningful to define to readers what the Delphi method was and whether it improved the validity or reliability of the Beers criteria. The author pointed out the need for further validation of occurrences and severity of negative outcomes. The author could have discussed whether previous research had measured the validity and reliability of the Beers criteria and what conclusions were made about it’s validity and reliability. The “Strength and Weaknesses” paragraph appropriately pointed out the limitation
