High-Risk Drug Classes
This drug class has the highest overdose death rate due to respiratory depression.
What are opioids?
This is the priority assessment after giving an opioid.
What is respiratory rate?
This sedative class is commonly prescribed for anxiety and sleep.
What are benzodiazepines?
Requesting early refills repeatedly is considered this.
What is a misuse red flag?
These are the basic medication safety checks every nurse follows.
What are the medication rights?
These three medication classes have the greatest abuse potential in clinical practice.
What are opioids, sedative-hypnotics, and stimulants?
This medication reverses opioid overdose.
What is naloxone?
Sedatives primarily cause this CNS effect.
What is CNS depression?
Getting similar prescriptions from multiple providers is called this pattern.
What is doctor shopping?
Controlled substance wasting should include this safeguard.
What is a witness?
This common ADHD medication class has misuse risk due to dopamine effects.
What are stimulants?
These pupil findings suggest opioid overdose.
What are pinpoint pupils?
Stimulant misuse commonly causes these two signs.
What are tachycardia and agitation?
Frequent controlled-substance wasting corrections may suggest this.
What is diversion risk?
This federal law regulates patient health information privacy.
What is HIPAA?
This concept means needing more drug to get the same effect.
What is tolerance?
Combining opioids with this drug class greatly increases death risk.
What are benzodiazepines?
Stopping long-term sedatives suddenly can cause this dangerous reaction.
What is withdrawal?
A mismatch between sedation level and reported pain is a ______ sign.
What is a warning (red flag)?
Sharing login credentials violates this principle.
What is security/accountability?
This term means withdrawal occurs if the drug is stopped.
What is dependence?
This body system failure causes most opioid overdose deaths.
What is respiratory failure?
This is the major danger when sedatives are mixed with opioids.
What is severe respiratory depression?
The nurse’s first action when misuse is suspected.
What is document and notify the provider?
The nurse’s ethical duty when diversion is suspected.
What is reporting through proper channels?