Abstract:

Objective To understand the real medication experience of elderly patients with polypharmacy in hospital-family transition period，and to provide a theoretical basis for improving the quality of drug management in transition period. Methods A descriptive phenomenological study method was applied in a tertiary hospital in Chongqing from August to September 2022. A total of 16 elderly polypharmacy patients with in one week after discharge were recriuted using purposive sampling. Face-to-face semi-structured interviews were conducted，and the preliminary data was analyzed by phenomenological analysis of Colaizzi’s method. Results A total of 17 interviews were conducted，with approximately 493 minutes of recordings and 42 000 words transcribed. Four themes were extracted，namely，lack of participation in medication decision-making，difficulty in grasping discharge medication information（unable to fully understand discharge medication guidelines due to the short discharge time，confused about the discharge medication information explained by the medical staff），confusion about discharge medication list （difficulty in identifying the discharge drug list，difficulty in understanding the professional terms in the discharge drug list，complete and accurate medication information cannot be obtained from the discharge drug list），difficult to take medicine out of hospital and need family support（burden of independent management of discharged drugs，rely on family support to improve confidence in drug management）. Conclusion Elderly patients with multiple drug use have poor experience of drug-related medical care activities during the hospital-home transition period. A reasonable work process should be built to improve the quality of drug management during the transition period，so as to ensure the accuracy and continuity of drug therapy during the transition period.

Key words: Old People, Polypharmacy, Transition, Medication experience, Qualitative research