Medication Management To Crush or not to Crush

That is the question!

This session will examine why we need to crush medicines, and if it's okay, how we can do it safely and effectively. It will also give you some tools to evaluate whether the tablet in front of you should be crushed, and alternatives that might be possible rather than heading straight for your mortar and pestle.
CPD HOURS: 1
 Registration Year 2026/2027

Course Content

All too often we see on a chart 'crush all tablets', usually due to a swallowing difficulty. Consideration has been given (and rightly so) to the patient's capabilities, but what about that tablet?

Do we know what crushing might do to the absorption characteristics of the drug? Will any changes to those characteristics affect the medicine's activity in the body? Will that change the side effect profile? And aside from the pharmacokinetic changes, what about the practicalities of using a good technique to ensure we recover as much of the dose as possible? What about our own exposure to the crushed powder - is it safe? What's the legal liability of altering a dose form?

This session will examine why we need to crush medicines, and if it's okay, how we can do it safely and effectively. It will also give you some tools to evaluate whether the tablet in front of you should be crushed, and alternatives that might be possible rather than heading straight for your mortar and pestle.

Why this session may be relevant to your work

Medication management is a key task in my role as a registered nurse and altering the drug may have an impact on numerous factors that I need to be aware of.

Learning Outcomes

In this session, you will:
  • Explain why some medicines will need to be altered from the original state
  • Identify most dose forms that should not be crushed
  • List the steps to safely crush appropriate medicines
  • Recognise the legal liabilities and workplace health & safety considerations when altering dose forms

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Amy Gibson

BPharm GCertHlthProfEd MClinPharm
Amy is a credentialed clinical pharmacist with experience across a range of sectors, including community pharmacy, corporate pharmacy operations, multidisciplinary teams, residential aged care and general practice.