Am I stupid? Med question...

*stupid ?? follows*

OK, so I would never ever drop a med on the floor, pick it up and give it to the patient--but this last week I did tip the med cup over on the patients bedside table, the meds rolled out a bit, I picked them up w/ the cup and gave the patient the meds.

Now, I am a new nurse, and my little pea sized brain is telling me this is bad practice and that I contaminted the pills. But I have seen other nurses do this kind of thing and am wondering if I am being paranoid. And yes, I have been thinking about it ever since...

So my question: at what point do I get new meds from the pyxis? Nursing school would slap my hands and say every time--not sure what real world nurses do.

Duh!