Clinical Skills: Giving oral medication

Hello. Today I will talk about the different ways to administer oral medication.

Normally you do everything on this list, but to keep things concise, we’ll focus on the steps in blue, and we’ll also include a summary.

Regardless of how you’re administering the medication, sit the patient upright. If they’re not able to sit upright, then they can lie on their side.

Place tablets into a medicine cup, and have the patient swallow them one at a time. Have a glass of water ready to help the tablets go down.

Now, in some situations, you might want to check if the patient has successfully swallowed the tablets. To do so, have the patient open their mouth before you visually inspect the cheeks and under the tongue.

If the patient is unable to swallow tablets, break them up one at a time in a pill-crusher device, then mix the crushed medication into a teaspoon of soft food, and have the patient eat that.