In: Nursing
what must you do before administering new antibiotics to a patient?
Antibiotics are powerful drugs that kill bacteria. It will not work for viral infections rather predisposes a patient in developing antibiotic resistance.
Administer a new antibiotics to a patient with caution & give only when necessary.
If the patient's condition is serious for example pneumonia, we can give broad spectrum antibiotics even before the test results.
Then re-examine the antibiotics after the test results, if test is positive for suspected bacterial infection ,reduce the treatment to one specific antibiotic it is known as " de- escalation" & improve treatment results and prevent overuse of antibiotics.
If the test result is negative for bacterial infection, perform other specific tests and stop the antibiotics. As there are some side effects like diarrhoea, nausea,vomiting, allergic reactions like rashes, breathing difficulties etc.
So you must know the side effects and check other related medical history of a patient.
Check the antibiotics: correct medicine name and dose ,do check expiry date.