Please bring your medications to each appointment with your nurse practitioner, doctor, or pharmacist.
It is important to BRING your actual medications (not just a list) to each appointment. This means all drugs from all prescribers. Bring prescription and non-prescription medications. Bring inhalers, eye drops, medicated creams, vitamins, supplements, etc., etc.
Bringing your medications to your appointment gives your nurse practitioner a lot of information. It gives more details than most people can recall from memory and more than what can be found on a list. Your provider will be able to see the drug name, who prescribed it, the dose, how much is left, how many refills remain, and what it looks like. This is especially helpful if you have trouble remembering medication names. Bringing your medications can prevent confusion if you normally describe your medications by appearance or what they do, rather than by name. It is also important to bring medications prescribed by others (e.g. specialists, hospital) so that we can update your records.
You’d be surprised how many complications can be prevented by bringing in your medications!