Pill Crush Hack

Shoutout to Stephanee Beggs @rnexplained for the cool hack!

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[jennifernorthcutt]

Check with your pharmacist before crushing pills. The doctor does not know about all medications but it is the pharmacists job to know this information.

[shantelbryan]

6 kids finally old enough to swallow pills. I needed this in my life 10 years ago

[steveioe]

Pills are crushed for patients who have trouble swallowing 🙂

[erinelizabeth]

Listen, make sure your meds should be crushed. Sometimes even if the pill physically can be crushed your dr may say don’t

[_juniper_]

As a pharmacy technician, please make sure you ask your pharmacist or doctor if it’s ok to crush your pills. Mostly because they can loose their dosage strength or not have full effect on your body. Also some pills can’t be crushed due to their contents. So if you can’t swallow pills talk to your doctor or pharmacist about it.

[Anggea]

After working in a hospital, I will be the old person suspicious of applesauce.

[maddydavidsdottir]

We used to have to do this on the pediatric ward if something wasnt available in liquid or IV form. Its the quickest and easiest way to get a 10 month old baby their medication.
Also, it came in very useful after my car accident when i was taking over 30 tablets 4 times a day to stay alive 😂

[caty]

We used to “crush” my brother’s med in a small bit of water and shot glass and then he would just take the shot and have a chaser. Made it super easy for a 3 year old to get down the meds easily for his cancer.

[TinaRN]

Nursing home flashback! 50 patient med pass, every single patient on multiple meds (5-10+), and 1/4 of them had to be crushed! Loved my patients, but I literally hated that job! You ever wonder why there is so much room for error/“neglect” in nursing homes? It’s because they’re severely understaffed and overwhelmed. We’re nurses not super humans!

[DarkWonder]

I just crush them between 2 spoons. My grandma was a nurse in WWII and didnt have syringes to waste, that's how she taught me, no water, no mess and super easy.

[marciwhitman]

You don't have to go through all of that. You can buy a pill crusher at the pharmacy. It's only about $2. But you have to make sure that you can actually do that to your pills because some pills should not be crushed or chewed.

[BRACE_The_Ace]

Another trick if you have meds that taste terrible:

Hold your meds in one hand & your drink in the other.
•Take a sip but don't swallow.

•Tilt your head back a bit & drop the pills in, then close your mouth.

•Keep your head back if it's regular pills
•Tilt your head forward if it's a capsule
(Correct me if im wrong)

•Swallow

Works most of the time & it was the only way I was able to swallow my meds.

[aaronwhite]

Absolutely LOVE this! I am definitely trying this my next shift! (ICU RN here… yes, I am fully aware of meds that cannot or should not be crushed).

[christy]

Thank you i just had surgery and i have to crush my pills for a month. I SERIOUSLY LOVE YOU FOR THIS

[halles]

We do this sometimes when a dog or a cat won’t take there meds and make it a liquid form. I learned this from a coworker that used to help disabled people.

[harmonicaveronica]

The warning at the beginning is really important. The only med I'm on would be a Bad Time if I crushed it (I'd get a double dose of stimulants 🥴) but luckily they tell you that if you can't swallow the capsules you're allowed to open them and put the extended release beads into a spoonful of apple sauce

[burntbeansoup]

Remember that you can always tell your doctor if you have trouble swallowing pills. They usually have a liquid version available, or they could tell you to crush the pills.

[crazier]

The meds you can crush are those with no label of Modified release, Extended release, Film coated etc.

Coz these meds have a coating/formulations which intends to keep those meds from dissolving fast especially with the help of stomach acid, coz first

It keeps your meds working throughout the day, like some antihypertensive meds.

And/or

They need to be absorbed in the intestines for it to work.

[kandihinshaw]

The fun fact here is that you actually have to let the pill dissolve partially before you can actually do that. If you put the pill in the syringe with water it doesn't automatically dissolved. It does take a few minutes to do that soap ill becomes off enough in the water. So you can then get it broken up and do what they did with the syringe with the thumb over it. It takes a little bit of time.

[vickyallan]

I told my friend about this a little while ago and she never heard of it until then. She's been a nurse for over 7 years now. 😂