There were a few safety concerns I noticed during my reconciliation of the examined patients medications. I noticed that the patient was on a statin and found that some statins are not the safest for use in diabetics after doing some research. With further research, I discovered that Lovastatin, the medication that my patient was on, was safer for use in clients with diabetes than other statins. Another medication that I was concerned about in regards to the clients diabetes was his use of lisinopril. Lisinopril leads to spikes in blood sugar which would be working against his insulin glargine and would be something to monitor with a glucometer in type 1 diabetes. Metoprolol inhibits the clients sympathetic response which is a factor that must be monitored to detect signs of hyper or hypoglycemia. The normal symptoms that tell a patient that they are hyperglycemic or hypoglycemic are masked by the effects of the beta blocker.

None of my concerns for the clients safety was related to the age of the patient or the clients ability to understand their medications, as my. client was a college student with significant background in science courses.

The patient understood why they were on each medication. This would be important because some patients take medication simply for the sake of the fact that they were prescribed to them at some point, despite the situation that they no longer suffer from the condition that the medication was originally prescribed for. If the client did not understand why they were on each medication, they could also suffer from adverse effects and not realize that it is a common effect of the medication that they are taking.

Two medications that had similar indications was the clients lisinopril and his metoprolol. Both of these medications have effect on the blood pressure but act on different systems to achieve that effect. The lisinopril is an ACE-inhibitor that acts on the renin-angiotensin system while beta blockers inhibit the sympathetic nervous system to decrease the excitability of the heart, forcing it to beat slowly, as well as with less force. The patient was aware that the lisinopril prescription was more geared towards the management of his blood pressure while the purpose of the beta blocker was to prevent further inflammation of the heart muscle in his myocarditis.

The patient appeared aware of all medication interactions and safety concerns discussed above. When asked if all of that information was gone over with him in a clinical setting, the patient said “yes”.