Meds you hate to give....

Nurses General Nursing

Updated:   Published

What are the top medications that you hate to give and why?

Mine is Amphotericin B (called "Ampho-terrible" at my hospital).

Anything that can't mix with Normal Saline makes me nervous. It makes me wonder what's going to happen when it gets into the vein--isn't blood a fairly salty environment?

I dont know we just started giving Kytril to, I like it, but our docs have always been big on phenergan,compazine, and tigan. They mostly like phenergan and they like to give it iv, I think its becaause it sedates the pt. that way they wont bug the doc. I know one of our docs gives horribley large amounts of phenergan and benadryl for nausia.:angryfire

Rod RN:chuckle :nurse: :nurse:

Kytril is verrry expensive. The others are not, I think that is why they like to give the cheaper drugs first.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in ortho/neuro/general surgery.
Yup, idiosyncratic reactions to benzos are not uncommon in the elderly. Be careful:idea:

If I didn't say it before, I HATE giving Ambien to anyone who hasn't taken it before. Have had a few elderly patients on our floor go looloo from it. One man in his 50's had it the night he had a bowel resection. His nurse came into his room to find him sitting naked on the side of the bed. When he asked him if he knew where he was, he told her he'd had bookoo surgery up on the mountain with Dr. Bookoo. When she asked him what kind of surgery it was, he told her he'd had a hysterectomy. No more Ambien and no more confusion.

So far, I haven't seen Restoril cause this kind of confusion, but I have seen it make a person verrrrry sleepy, especially when it's given *with Xanax* by the previous shift :angryfire :banghead: .

I also hate IM Vistaril. It burns bad from what I've been told. At our facility we can't give IV Vistaril, but I've heard some facilities allow it.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Rehab, Med/Surg, Ortho, ER.

it sucks giving dilantin iv, i once saw another nurse give it way too fast and we ended up coding the pt. slightly better in it's new form but still scares me.

[color=#48d1cc]

[color=#48d1cc]and i want to meet the nurse that likes giving stuff in orifices or stuff that makes stuff come out of orifices. actually maybe i should say i wouldn't want to meet that nurse. i don't think any of us like giving those kinds of meds.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

Rocephin IM, Ouch! Kids don't like that much, so many tears! :bluecry1:

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in LTC, Home Health, L&D, Nsy, PP.

I HATE magging patients in OB! HATE HATE HATE IT!!!!

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Med/Surge, ER.

Definately Charcoal....MESSY! Ketamine....it just scares me. IV Vit K...listed first on side effects is cardiac arrest!! (I always have the doc change it to subcutaneous), Reglan....you never know how the patient is going to react to it. Diprivan....aggravating to prime the IV tubing. Nitro SL....Q 5 minutes (who has time for that?)

Up Vote Up Vote ×

ooops

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Tele m/s, new to ED.

charcoal, the pt is usually fiesty enough. kayexalate PR:(

Up Vote Up Vote ×

this has been an awsome thread, I leanred tons thanks all

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Medsurg/ICU, Mental Health, Home Health.

hey everyone! i know this thread's a little old, but i happened upon it & wanted to open my big mouth!

first of all, i hate halving pills. it never works perfectly. so any pill i have to split, i hate. i'm also not a fan of im injections...always afraid i'll miss the muscle. eye drops are not a favorite. mostly because patients who get them usually get them several times of day or get several different eye drops.

as for specific meds:

-- iv nexium. all that mixing for fifteen minutes' worth of a drug, and of course it's only compatible with nss and usually ordered for patients who have potassium in their maitenence fluids.

-- iv ativan. it takes a while to draw up since it's cold and thick, and since (at least in my health care system) it only comes in 2mg/1ml vials, i always have to waste what's left. plus, we have to go to the accudose, get the key out of the med drawer, open the locked compartment in the fridge, take out what is needed, count what is left, lock again, then put the key back in, all without letting the drawer on the accudose shut!

-- lantus insulin. i'm always afraid a patient will drop overnight and i'll end up pushing d50 at 0600.

-- golytely. 'nuff said.

-- k+ or mg riders. i never know if the patient will tolerate it, and a lot of times because of the burning i y-site it with nss, which requires two iv pumps and it's not always easy to find two!

-- venofer.. it's a personal one because i ran it too fast on the patient the first time i gave it and made him rather hypotensive, so i just cringe when i see it on the mar.

-- tpn! we have to make sure the orders are written and faxed to the ha pharmacy before 1600 (which is before i come in at 1900) or else we need clindamix, then checking the order vs. the label is a pain the butt, and it also means daily nsp1s from a central line and q6 accuchecks. and the smell is just...oh-so-lovely!

-- heparin drips are not my friend, either. i worry a lot about my patient with these, and timing all of the labs just right, adjusting the drips, watching for signs of bleeding, etc. just leave so many openings for errors.

*~jess~*

Up Vote Up Vote ×

iv nexium. all that mixing for fifteen minutes' worth of a drug, and of course it's only compatible with nss and usually ordered for patients who have potassium in their maitenence fluids.[/size][/b]

-- iv ativan. it takes a while to draw up since it's cold and thick, and since (at least in my health care system) it only comes in 2mg/1ml vials, i always have to waste what's left. plus, we have to go to the accudose, get the key out of the med drawer, open the locked compartment in the fridge, take out what is needed, count what is left, lock again, then put the key back in, all without letting the drawer on the accudose shut!

you mix for 15 minutes? ours comes in a little vial that you reconstitute with 6ml of ns and then give ivp. what kind of nexium are you guys cooking up?

our ativan is not cold because it's not kept in the fridge. just kept in the omnicell. it's not a deal for us.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in LTC, med-surg, critial care.

If you roll the ativan vial between your palms it will warm up fine. Or if it's still viscous you can draw it up with an 18 gauge needle pretty easily. When I worked LTC the pharmacy would send six vials in a bag with the patient label. We drew up what we needed and left the rest, we didn't waste, so each vial was two doses.

What I don't like:

*Dilaudid to little old broken hip lady's. I push super slow, hold my breath and wait a minute before I leave the room.

*Insulin drips. Our neurosurgen will put any elderly Type II on a drip post-op and they drop. This means I go from accuchecks every hour to every half hour until it reaches 150. I cheat and give them juice when it creeps down around 90 since he never DC's the drip until day shift.

*Ambien to people who've never had it. The whole amnesia thing and getting up on their own because they feel fine is nerve racking.

*Fleets Phosphate Soda. The GI guys let us give it with 7-up but apparently that doesn't help since they all still complain about the taste.

*Rochephin IM (LTC), even with lidocaine it hurts.

*Mucomyst PO because it's so hard to watch them drink it.

*Any capsule med (that has those little beads inside the capsule) to a GT/NG. By gravity the beads just pile up and block the tip of the syringe, they can't be crushed and pushing them in is still hard.

*Keflex in a NG/GT it stinks

*Inhalers to a patient with a blow-by, you have to time it just right or it all comes flying out the end of the blow-by

Up Vote Up Vote ×
+ Add a Comment