Meds you hate to give....

Nurses General Nursing

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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?

1. Paraldehyde because as the patient metabolizes it, the room stinks to high heaven.

2. Mucomyst given orally for Tylenol overdose due to the puking involved with it. Plus, Mucomyst is a stinky medication as well.

3. Go Lytely, all over the walls of the bathroom (if the patient even makes it in there), not to mention the puking when the patient's system can't take anymore.

You still use paraldehyde? I have never dispensed it in 14 years, although one tiny rural hospital where I did relief work had a very old bottle of it, with a skull and crossbones on the label to boot. I sniffed it - how do they get people to SWALLOW that stuff?

When I was in pharmacy school, a man spoke to our class who had lost his license because he used his own drugs. He would order bottles of Tylenol #3 elixir and drink them, then chase it with Mucomyst to avert the Tylenol poisoning. I had encountered Mucomyst as a student technician, and I said, out loud, "This dude was hardcore!" which had most of my classmates wondering what I meant.

I now work in a hospital, but when I worked at a grocery store pharmacy, I once dispensed some Golytely and when I brought out that brown grocery bag, another person at the cash register said, "I know what that is.":down: I haven't needed it yet but my time will come; when it does, I'll probably just get some mag citrate or Fleet's Phosphosoda and fast for two days beforehand.

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Specializes in ACNP-BC.

I hate giving Go Lightly (and really, it should be called "Go Heavily!!") because my patients always give me a dirty look as if I was the one who ordered it! lol Also, I hate giving the huge Potassium pills since they're like horse pills!

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Specializes in Emergency, Nursing Management, Auditing.

lopressor... the docs order 5mg x 3, you have to push it over 5 minutes, wait 5 minutes to give the next dose, etc... not the best drug to have to push in the ED when you have 4 other patients

any enema or suppository... ew!

adenosine... freaks me out!

lactulose... ooohhh the aftereffects :chair:

and last but certainly not least, charcoal! ughhhhh:uhoh21:

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Specializes in Peds, ER/Trauma.
yeah ive got to second that. im also not a big fan of supps and as for iv/im ill never give iv buscopan and unlike some Dr's ive worked with i wont give iv amioderone

You won't give IV amiodarone??? What if you need to give it in a code situation???

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Specializes in Emergency, Nursing Management, Auditing.

Ooooh I forgot to add... HATE HATE HATE giving rabies shots!!! The vaccine itself isn't bad at all, just like a 1/2mL bright pink solution, but the immune globulin is thick, terrible to draw up, and requires a ton of painful injections! Eek! I had to give a 15 year old kid 5 shots the other day... 4 in the butt, 1 in the delt... not so fun :(

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adenosine... freaks me out!

First time I ever saw that given, the hospitalist shot it in and said "This is cool, watch this..."

220's to 0.

I nearly fainted :lol2:

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Specializes in Peds, ER/Trauma.
lopressor... the docs order 5mg x 3, you have to push it over 5 minutes, wait 5 minutes to give the next dose, etc... not the best drug to have to push in the ED when you have 4 other patients

Actually, you can give Lopressor over 2 minutes, just watch the heart rate. It's still time consuming, though, when you're giving all 3 doses, having to wait 5 min between doses....

My favorites to give are Adenosine (it's fun!) and Narcan to overdoses- I love being their buzz-kill! :devil:

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My favorites to give are Adenosine (it's fun!) and Narcan to overdoses- I love being their buzz-kill! :devil:

When I was a fairly new nurse, a surgeon had me sitting at the bedside titrating a demerol IVPB while taking the patient's bp and rr. When the resp's dropped, he said "Not to worry, here's some Narcan... stand back!"

That woman came up out of that bed like a wild beast. Scared the crap outta me.

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Sucralfate via G-tube. It never dissolves!

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Specializes in Pediatrics.

liquid colace.

i've tasted it. terrible stuff. i'd say 7 times out of 10 its guaranteed the kid will puke.

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dang, there are sev'l i hate giving.

my point is, my pts know that i suffer along w/them.

i make these God-awful faces as i push an iv, that i know burns, or take a crushed med, that smells like crap.

they look at me w/horror in their eyes. :rotfl:

(insert sick humor here. oh wait. i just did.)

like when my kids were babies and i fed them green vegetables.

hubby constantly scolded me for making such horrible faces, as i fed them.

no wonder they cried.

no wonder they don't eat green veggies, to this day.

but they love me in poker!:D

leslie

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Specializes in ER, ICU, L&D, OR.

I miss the old days when we used to give 4.8 million units of Wycillin or Bicillin LA Deep IM for uhh certain problems, I loved the look of terror in their eyes. Those great big glass syringes and those great big needles they came prepackaged in. Loved it

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