When administering drugs it is essential to pay close attention to the task at hand. This task becomes more important when administering medications to the elderly due to the various physiological and psychological changes that occur in the body. Equally important are laboratory values ​​related to medications administered, differences in administering medications to older adults, and the use of the six rights and three controls. As people age, their bodies undergo changes. One of the most common changes is decreased visual acuity (Touhy, Jett, 2012). Reduced visual acuity can lead to taking the wrong medication, resulting in harmful effects for the patient. Elderly patients also experience decreased saliva and esophageal motility and impaired ability to swallow pills (Touhy, 2012). Furthermore, adipose tissue can more than double in older adults (Touhy, 2012). An accumulation of adipose tissue becomes important when administering fat-soluble drugs because the drug can be absorbed into the fat and create a toxic effect (Touhy, 2012). Finally, most older adults have a slower metabolism which results in delayed gastric emptying (Touhy, 2012). This becomes important because some drugs do not reach the small intestine to be absorbed in time to cause their therapeutic effects (Touhy, 2012). There are many different reasons for doing lab work before a drug is given. For example, it is important to perform a WBC when a bacterial infection is suspected to know which drug will be effective (Touhy, 2012). Furthermore, when administering anticoagulants such as heparin, it is important to know the prothrombin time which determines whether or not to administer the drug (Touhy, 2012). In patients with diameter...... half the paper ... documented immediately after administration to avoid errors in documentation (Potter, 2013). All six of these rights must be completed three times before a medication is administered (Potter, 2013). The first of these three checks is carried out when the drugs are removed from the storage unit (Potter, 2013). The subsequent check is carried out when the drugs are removed from the container in which they are located, and the final check is carried out at the patient's bedside just before administration (Potter, 2013). All in all, drug administration requires a lot of responsibility and attention on the part of the patient. prevent errors from occurring. It is also important to know that drug administration to older adults can be significantly different due to their physiological changes. Finally, it is important to have a system such as the six rights and three controls to consistently identify medication errors.