Effectiveness and Safety
Orders only accepted in emergent or procedural situations, and the MRP is unable to write/enter the order themselves.
What are verbal orders?
Shared Health Organizations Portal for all your clinical resource, policies and DSTs.
What is SHOP?
Learning system used to report and capture medication errors or near misses.
What is Patient Safety & Learning System (PSLS)?
This acronym stands for a complete and accurate list of medications a patient is actually taking
What is the Best Possible Medication History (BPMH)?
Barcode scanning the patient's wristband and each medication completes this medication-safety process.
What is Closed Loop Medication Management?
Repeat patient's name and second identifier, drug name and spelling, drug dose and strength, route and form, frequency, duration, and provider college ID/provider last name.
What information do you, as the nurse requires when taking verbal medication orders from a prescriber?
Healthcare professional specializing in pharmacology that is an excellent resource for medications
What is a pharmacist?
Safety huddles, staff meetings, emails to staff, posters, debriefs, teamsite, instagram
What are ways medication safety information and learnings are communicated to the unit/staff?
Staff member responsible for ensuring medication reconciliation is completed at transitions of care
Who is the Most Responsible Provider (MRP)?
Medications should only be stored in these secure locations.
What are locked MDCs, vaults, or the Omnicell?
These are the methods that CANNOT be used when giving or receiving a verbal order.
What are emails, texts, and voicemail messages
An education tool and resource for patients and families that they can take with them upon discharge.
What is PHEM?
What is patient health education materials?
What is Vanessa's Law?
1. Obtain a BPMH
2. Identify and resolve medication discrepancies
3. Communicate complete and accurate medication list to the patient and next care provider
What are the three steps of medication reconciliation?
Patient-specific ward stock medications, such as insulin, require these two labels
What are patient-specific labels and expiry labels?
Right client, right medication, right dose, right time, right frequency, right route, right reason/indication, right documentation
What are the rights of medication administration?
A resource that nurses can use to review: how to prepare/reconstitute, and administer IV medications, as well as safety and monitoring considerations.
What is the parenteral drug therapy manual (PDTM)?
Type of medication incident that should be reported even though it never reached the patient
What is a near miss or "good catch" ?
If a patient takes a medication differently than how it was prescribed, this must be included in the BPMH
What is discrepancy between prescribed instructions and the patient's actual medication use?
This check is required for designated high-alert medications and must be conducted and documented appropriately.
What is an Independent Double Check (IDC)?
OD, D/C, QD, SQ, SC - these can be dangerous!
What are some dangerous abbreviations not approved for use?
These are other resources available to VCH nurses for more information on medications.
What are UptoDate, Lexicomp, Elsevier and Trissels?
A suspected adverse drug reaction (ADR) is documented here.
What is the patient's health record / chart?
Admission, transfer and discharge are examples of these important points when Medication Reconciliation is required.
What are transitions of care?
These kits must be available wherever hazardous drugs are stored, prepared, or administered.
What are cytotoxic spill kits?