Preventing Medication Errors
Pediatric medication doses are typically based on this measurement to ensure safe dosing.
What is weight in kilograms
This is the term used for verifying the Right Patient, Right Drug, Right Dose, Right Route, and Right Time before giving medication
What are the Five Rights of Medication Administration?
Before administering medication through feeding tube (NG, G-tube) the nurse must first do these two things?
What is check tube placement and verify patency.
TPN should be stored and administered under this condition to prevent degradation due to its multivitamin content?
What is protection from light.
This type of report should be filed when the drug library doesn’t have a medication or a medication event/error occurs, even if there is no harm
What is an RL Datix?
What database do we use to check safe dosage ranges, side effects, and IV compatibility? Where is this located?
What is Micromedex and on the tool bar in cerner.
This type of oral medication should never be crushed or chewed as it alters the drug release.
What are enteric-coated or extended-release tablets
TPN and Lipids should be administered using this type of tubing add on to prevent particulate matter from being infused.
What is a micron filter.
This item MUST be on the patient and is the ONLY acceptable way to verify the patient's identity to ensure the correct medication is administered."
What is the patient ID band.
What is the proper way to flush a secondary medication line when infusing the medication on a syringe pump?
What is switch the syringe out to a NS flush and click the restore button, making sure to note the mLs going to be infused.
What device is used to give nasal medications when there is no access?
Mucosal Atomization Device (MAD)
These two things need to be changed q24hr when hanging new bags of TPN/Lipids.
What is needleless connectors and IV set lines.
This medication safety practice ensures a second RN verifies a high-risk medication before it’s administered.
What is independent double checking or independent verification.
Pediatric patients require weight-based dosing for safety, making this type of non-programmable infusion unsafe to use on an IV pump?
What is a basic infusion pump
These two things should always be checked before an IV medication is infused.
What is patency of the PIV and IV compatibility of the medication
Name two indications for why a patient may require parenteral nutrition.
What is bowel rest, impaired gastric function, NPO for extended period of time.
Before starting an infusion, the nurse must confirm the pump is programmed using this feature to ensure accuracy and safety?
What is the drug library
If the pump guardrail alerts the nurse to a programmed dose outside the safe range, the nurse should take these two actions.
What is stop the infusion and verify the order with another nurse, the provider, or pharmacist
These two techniques are used to prevent aspiration when giving oral medications to a patient that is a baby or toddler.
What is positioning the patient upright and administering medication to the side of the mouth in small increments
What are two things you should anticipate if your patient's TPN is discontinued abruptly?
What is D10W and glucose checks