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5 lessonsAbout 33 minutesNo CE or licensure credit

Side effects, medication errors and psychotropic medications

Five short lessons for RCFE staff who help residents take their own medications: noticing and describing a possible side effect, what to do and write down after a medication error, what the training laws say about psychotropic medicines for residents with dementia, the resident's right to say no, and reporting through your facility's procedure.

Begin the courseSee the sourcesPrint the job aids

Written for

  • Caregivers and aides
  • Facility and direct-care teams
Course version
2026.10.5
Text checked against its sources

Before you begin

What you will be able to do

  • Describe a possible side effect on shift in plain, timed facts and pass it to your supervisor, without naming a cause or changing a medicine.
  • Respond to a medication error by checking on the resident first, telling your supervisor at once and writing the facts, without making up for it with another dose.
  • Explain what the training laws name about psychotropic and antipsychotic medicines for residents with dementia, including the higher risk of death, and what you watch for and report because of it.
  • Protect a resident's right to refuse a medication, and follow the PRN rule that fits when a resident with dementia cannot judge her need or describe her symptoms.
  • Give your supervisor the facts a licensee's report to licensing needs, in time order, under your facility's procedure.

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In this course

  1. Notice and describe a possible side effectAbout 7 minutes · Not yet
  2. When a medication error happensAbout 7 minutes · Not yet
  3. Psychotropic medicines and residents with dementiaAbout 7 minutes · Not yet
  4. Her choice: refusal, consent and PRN rules in dementiaAbout 6 minutes · Not yet
  5. Reporting under your facility's procedureAbout 6 minutes · Not yet
  6. Course check · 10 questions0 of 5 lessons done

Sources

Sources behind this course

Each lesson lists the sources it uses. Open the original for the exact rule, form or instruction that applies to your work. The source library describes each one in more detail.

California Legislature

Health and Safety Code section 1569.69

The medication-helper training topics: the helper's role and limits, procedures and documentation, ordering and refills, and side effects, adverse reactions, errors, psychotropic adverse effects in dementia and the higher risk of death with antipsychotics; the bar on direct administration.

Where to look: Subdivisions (a)(4)(A), (a)(4)(F), (a)(4)(H), (a)(4)(I) and (h).

Open section 1569.69 on the Legislature’s site
California Legislature

Health and Safety Code section 1569.625

The training topics for staff who help residents with daily living, including dementia care (antipsychotic use and misuse, drug interactions, psychotropic adverse effects) and person-centered approaches without medicine.

Where to look: Subdivision (c)(7) and (c)(8).

Open section 1569.625 on the Legislature’s site
California CDSS (regulation text on Cornell LII)

Title 22, section 87465: Incidental medical and dental care

Centrally stored medications and the destruction of prescription medications no longer needed.

Where to look: Subdivisions (h) and (i).

Open section 87465 on Cornell LII
California CDSS (regulation text on Cornell LII)

Title 22, section 87211: Reporting Requirements

The reports a licensee makes to licensing, including the seven-day written report and what it contains.

Where to look: Subdivision (a)(1), (A) to (D).

Open section 87211 on Cornell LII
California CDSS (regulation text on Cornell LII)

Title 22, section 87705: Care of persons with dementia

The training the licensee ensures for staff, including recognizing the effects of medications used to reduce behavioral expression.

Where to look: Subdivision (b)(1)(C).

Open section 87705 on Cornell LII
California CDSS (regulation text on Cornell LII)

Title 22, section 87468.1: Personal rights of residents in all facilities

The right to receive or reject medical care, and to have representatives regularly informed.

Where to look: Subdivision (a)(8) and (a)(16).

Open section 87468.1 on Cornell LII
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