For older people and frail people, the long-term benefit of medicines reduces and the potential for harm from adverse effects increases. When the benefit–risk balance changes in this way, medicine review and optimisation are important to simplify the therapeutic regimen, reduce inappropriate medicines and minimise risks. In this article, pharmacist prescriber Linda Bryant uses two case studies to illustrate important considerations during medicine reviews
The heart of patient care: Remembering what matters
Wednesday 17 July 2024, 12:30 AM

Hope, stillness and an open heart are required to support patients through suffering. “In the end, people are healed by love” [Image: Austin Kehmeier on Unsplash]
Lucy O’Hagan explores how lessons from the past resonate at medicine’s front line, from understanding patient suffering to the role of a healer
The holistic healer sees healing as restoring the balance between the person, their body, their relationships, the natural world and the spiritual wor
Kia ora and welcome to New Zealand Doctor Rata Aotearoa
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References
References:
- McWhinney I. McWhinney’s Textbook of Family Medicine. Oxford: Oxford University Press; 1989
- Frank AW. The Wounded Storyteller. Body, Illness & Ethics. Chicago: University of Chicago Press; 1995
- Helman C. Suburban Shaman. Tales from Medicine’s Frontline. Cape Town: Double Storey Books; 2004