Question

1. What types of things should the nurse be looking for to determine if a medication is appropriate for a patient at this time?

Answer 1

Nurses play an important role in preventing medication errors.A nurse often provides last opportunity to for health care team to identify and correct errors in prescribing and distributing medication.because she is the last point of administration of drug and once the medication crosses her it goes directly in to the patient...

Nurses always have to follow 8 rights to make sure that no medication error occurs and to ensure safety of the patient.

1.RIGHT PATIENT : check name on the order and check patient

• --use 2 identifiers
• Ask patient to identify himself
• When available use technology eg:bar code system

2.RIGHT MEDICATION :

• check medicine label and check order
• Check previous medicine orders to know if he  was on the same medicine before
• Ask patient if patient is allergic to the drug

3.RIGHT DOSE:

• check order
• Confirm appropriateness of dose using a current drug reference
• If necessary calculate drug dose and have another nurse to check it once again
• In case of children have a correct dose calculation

4.RIGHT ROUTE :

• Check order and appropriateness
• Confirm that patient can take or receive medication by ordered route for eg a patient who is on NBM cannot be given medications orally... This is to be checked again
• Check label on the medication eg:a drug which is ordered to be given intravenously should be checked on the label to see if this drug can be given IV

5.RIGHT TIME:

• check frequency of ordered medication
• Double check the time to be given for eg diuretics should be preferably given before 4pm...antibiotics should be given with correct time gap like 8hrs or 12 hrs depending on the order
• Confirm when last dose was given

6.RIGHT DOCUMENTATION :

• document administration after giving the ordered medication.
• Check the time, route, and any other information as necessary
• Eg: site of an injection, lab values, vital signs that needed to be checked

7.RIGHT REASON

• confirm the rationale for ordered medication for eg:if pt is put on anti hypertensive drugs confirm that he is hypertensive
• Collect history, indications for starting this medication, any allergies etc
• Revisit the reason for long term medication use

8.RIGHT RESPONSE :

• Make sure that the drug led to the desired effect for a patient who is put on anti hypertensive should show difference in his bp levels after giving medication
• Document the results observed and any other nursing implementations if applied

SO OVERALL A NURSE SHOULD CHECK ALL THE ABOVE CRITERIA AND THEN ONLYSHE SHOULD ADMINISTER MEDICATIONS... IF SHE HAS ANY DOUBTS SHE CAN CLARIFY IT WITH CLINICIAN CONCERNED.... IF ALL THE CRITERIAS ARE POSITIVE THEN THE MEDICATION PRESCRIBED IS APPROPRIATE... Verbal orders cannot be considered for all kinds of drugs... And hence order sheet should be checked carefully...