Medication administration
Rights of medication administration:- follow all the rights of
medication administration properly
- Right patient
- Right drug
- Right route
- Right dose
- Right time
- Right documentation
- Right assessment
- Right to refuse
- Right reason
Three checks in medication administration inorder to avoid
medication errors
- Check the medicine when it take from the patient medicine box,
confirm the patient, medicine
- While preparing the medication, check the medicine , dose,
expiry date
- Recheck the label before administering the medication
a) standard oral medication
Procedures
- Review the patient notes and physician order. Check the patient
name, date of birth, allergic status
- Check whether the prescription is legible, date and time,
reason for medicine, is the medicine apt.
- Confirm that the medicine is not already given to the patient
by other staff
- Decontaminate the hands
- Educate the patient regarding medication and the reason for
medication etc
- Position the patient eg. Sitting position
- Decontaminate the hands
- Select medicine and check the name, expiry date, dose etc
- Take the medicine and calculations if needed. double checking
with other personal helps to reduce medication errors.
- Withdraw medication. Try to avoid hand contact with
medicine
- Administer medication
- Offer a drink
- Dispose the medicine pot as based on the policy
- Decontaminate the hands
- Documentation of medicine administration
- If patient refuse to take the drug, immediately inform the
concerned physician
b) IV medication
Preparation of IV medication tray
- Check the physician order for name of patient and medicine,
dose, route, frequency etc
- Decontaminate hands
- Articles: medicine, syringe with proper size, spirit swab, dry
swab, tourniquet, medication kardex, gloves, adhesive tape
- Using aseptic techniques
- load the medicine at the nurses nurses or beside the patient
bedside.
- Wash hands.
- wear gloves.
- Check the medicine and calculation
- Load medicine in syringe and label it
- Remove air bubbles if it is there.
- Place medicine in th medication tray.
- At patient bedside, educate the patient about the injection,
medication, route etc
- Position the patient eg. lying position
- Decontaminate hands
- Wear gloves
- Recheck medication label for name and dose
- Apply tourniquet just before the site of injection.
- Clean the area of puncture with a spirit or alcohol swab
- Using aseptic techniques, insert syringe into the vein,
withdraw blood. If blood comes, it confirms that the needle is in
the vein, also check the colour of blood, if it is dark red, it is
vein. If it is bright red, it is in the artery.
- Loosen the tourniquet. Inject the medicine.
- Check for any swelling above the site while injecting the
medication.
- After injecting, place a dry swab over the needle and slowly
withdraw the needle. Fix the cotton with an adhesive tape.
- Don't recap the needle
- Ask the patient to inform if there is any irritation after
medicine administration.
- Aftercare of the articles through proper waste disposal
method
- Wash hands
- Documentation
- Follow up the patient for any adverse effects.
c) Floor stock medication
Floor stock method in hospital means the storage of drugs where
it is needed for example: storage of medication in nurse's station
rather than in a pharmacy.