How much do they know?

It was clear within the first few minutes of speaking to my aunt that the common person does not know much about medication. Luckily, she is pretty healthy and only has hypothyroidism, for which she takes synthroid. When I spoke to her about her medication, she did know what she was taking it for but was not aware of possible side effects or other significant drug facts. I also asked her about regular over the counter medications she takes or has taken such as the very common Tylenol. She was not aware that Acetaminophen meant the same thing or its possible side effects. More importantly, she did not know about withholding it when taking other medications with acetaminophen. It was a big eye opener, I couldn’t help but think that here I am with so much knowledge gained throughout the nursing program and I have not yet attempted to share my knowledge about things so simple yet so significant. Perhaps sharing our knowledge just for fun might actually be beneficial to some people, we can never assume what they do or do not know.