Drug Administration Route

Medication administration is a very imperative aspect in the field of nursing. The patients’ five medication rights: right patient, right drug, right dose, right route and right time is a very crucial part of nursing that has to be followed in order to lessening the possibilities of medication errors. Medication distributions among patients coincide with implementing the nursing process: assessment, diagnosis, planning outcome and intervention, implementation and evaluation. The nursing process aids nurses to carefully provide the appropriate patient care when it comes to medication management. Many times even with the proper nursing care and techniques nurses encounter interruptions when preparing and administering medications. In a research article, a tertiary care university teaching hospital conducted an observational study where it was established how often nurses were involved in interruptions

As it is mentioned earlier, medication administration includes various steps and an interdisciplinary team. Undoubtedly, nurses play a vital role in the medication administration process. Since patient safety is the priority to all health care professionals, it is important for the nurses to effectively communicate and collaborate with an interdisciplinary team if he or she is unsure about any medication prescription to prevent any adverse events. In addition, patient education is another component of safe administration. A patient must be educated on medications they are taking, the reason for taking them, the dosage, a route, potential side effects, and interactions. Nurses should perform “six rights” of the medication each time. Before administering

The intended use of medications is meant to improve a person’ health, it is very important the individual administering medication or self-medicating use the drugs correctly, by following the doctors’ instruction for the medication prescribed. Medication is given to diagnose, treat, and prevent illness. Medication can be very dangerous, which can potentially cause harm or even deaf if it’s not used properly.

Children presenting to the emergency department are often subjected to painful and anxiety-producing procedures, both for diagnostic purposes and for treatment of symptoms. Historically, pediatric patients have not been afforded the same level of care as adults with regard to the management of procedural pain. Pain in the young child age group (1-7 years) has often been under-treated,

This article will look at two articles and focus on aspects of safety medication administration in nursing practice by the staff nurses. This is interesting area because the previous report on the medication administration error in the UK shows that approximately 5.6% of doses administered to adult hospital patients and it has been estimated that 0.6-1.2% of medication administration errors may lead to severe harm even death (Mcleod et al, 2013). Leape et al (1995) indicated that nurses were responsible for 86% of all medication error interception, regardless of the original errors. The nurses play the important role in identifying the causes of medication errors and preventing medication administration errors in nursing practice in order to provide safe care toward the service users (Henneman et al, 2010). The Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA 2004) documented that the health professionals need to effectively and safely use medicines to ensure patients get the maximum benefit from the medicine; meanwhile minimizing the potential harm. This article will be critiqued on the different types of evidence which explored safety medication administration in the nursing practice toward service user. Using evidence is important in nursing practice because it can help nurses in addressing questions related to best possible care and improve patients’ outcome. It is embedded within the code the nurses are expected to use best possible evidence in the nursing

Drug therapy always carries risks, but in older populations, that risk is at times amplified due to normal physiological variations. When considering drug therapy for an older

The problem that the community is experiencing related to medication administration is that there is no system that can be used to check the medication before administering except the RNs and LPNs themselves. Staff members are using picture of patients in the system as a way to identify patients before administering medications. They do not have barcode reader to alert them when they are about to administer wrong medications. The community is aware of this problem and started to use the same process except that the medication is checked by three nurses instead of two after entering the information into the system.

The main concern about having the elderly on so many medications at once is the chance of adverse drug reactions from potential drug interactions. They can be on both prescribed medications and over the counter medications, vitamins, or supplements. The most common over the counter medications that often lead to serious adverse drug reactions include acetaminophen, ibuprofen, and aspirin (Woodruff, 2010). Another reason that the elderly are more susceptible to adverse drug reactions is the fat and water composition changes, they have increased fat storage and decreased total body water, this allows for higher concentration of water soluble drugs and longer half-lives of fat soluble drugs (Woodruff, 2010). Changes in the liver and

Acute pain following a surgical procedure is one of the most common stimuli experiences by pediatric patients. Pediatric postoperative pain management has long been overlooked and treated differently than adult pain management. There tend to many misconceptions when it comes to pediatric pain management stemming from the belief that children do not experience pain the same way as adults. Since the pediatric population is not legally allowed to make medical decisions, guardians must make these decisions for them.

Optimizing drug therapy is an essential part of caring for an older person. The process of prescribing a medication is complex and includes: deciding that a drug is indicated, choosing the best drug, determining a dose and schedule appropriate for the patient's physiologic status, monitoring for effectiveness and toxicity, educating the patient about expected side effects, and indications for seeking consultation. Multiple factors contribute to the appropriateness and overall quality of drug prescribing. These include avoidance of inappropriate medications, appropriate use of indicated medications, monitoring for side effects and drug levels, avoidance of drug-drug interactions, and involvement of the patient and integration of patient values.

The route means how and where the medication goes in to the body. Most medications are taken into the mouth and swallowed, but others enter the body through injection through the skin, for example rectum, vagina, eyes, ears, nose, and lungs or through a g-tube. Compare the route on the prescription label, the medication order and the medication log. If they do not match, or if there is any doubt about the right route, just ask questions.

Elderly patients that take several medications compound the risk of developing an adverse drug reaction. Not only does the aging process have an effect on how elderly bodies process medication, but elderly people take more medications than their younger counterparts. According to Conry (2005), the elderly patient takes an average of 5 prescription medications and two non-prescription medications (Conry, 2005). While medications are frequently necessary to enhance the quality of life of the elderly, non-pharmacologic methods should be used whenever possible. Healthcare providers need to understand how aging impacts the body’s response to medications, which drugs pose more risk to

Pediatric pain management is measured subjectively because it is based off of what the patient says or how the nurse interprets the pain scale. Pain is rated using different scales, unfortunately these different scales could yield different results. Nurses are trained to use pediatric pain scales to analyze and treat pain but parents are not supplied with the tools to manage pain when the patient goes home. With 84% of all pediatric surgical procedures performed on an outpatient basis, the importance of teaching parents how to assess for and manage pain has become more important than ever (Rony, Fortier, Chorney, Perret, & Kain, 2010). According to Rony’s et al. (2010) study, it is apparent that pediatric pain is not being treated effectively. The study showed that 58.8% of children were receiving less than the daily recommended does prescribed by the pediatrician (p.1). Results of the study also showed that parents had false assessments on if their child was actually in pain. 36% of parents believed that if their child was in pain, they would cry out for the parent , 30% agreed that their child would always tell them if they are in pain, while 22% said that the child would report their pain immediately (Rony, Fortier, Chorney, Perret, & Kain, 2010, ). Children do not always verbalize when they are in pain. Sometimes the pain can be so intense that a child is unable to talk. If the child catches on to the parents negative perception of pain medications, the child may not

If the police feel as though an individual may be transporting drugs, they may use the “drug courier profile” to make the determination. The “drug courier profile” is best described as a situation in which an individual fits the profile of a drug courier based on his or her appearance, mannerisms, luggage, and actions (Ingram, 2009). Other common characteristics among drug couriers are nervousness, where they are traveling to, their method for purchasing tickets, and the amount of luggage they have (Becton, 1987). If an individual fits this profile, then the police have reasonable suspicion that they may be involved in the transportation of drugs.

In emergency rooms across the United States one of the most common complaints is pain. Recently, there have been reports on the news saying that doctors have a problem with prescribing too much pain medication. That may be true for adults but the same cannot be said for pediatric patients. A study of 24,707 Emergency Department (ED) visits reported that one 44% of pediatric patients have very little pain control in spite of pain documentation (Ramira, Instone, & Clark, 2016, p. 39). Sometimes it seems as though health care professionals take the pain of an adult more serious than a child’s. In the article, Pediatric Pain Management: An Evidence-Based Approach conducted by Maria Ramira, APRN, Susan Instone, APRN, and Mary Clark, PhD RN seeks to address this issue and introducing methods that might improve pediatric pain management.