Parents send med in pre filled syringe

[maryen]

Hi,

I am hoping to get some advice. I have been filling in as a one on one nurse to provide nursing care to students with special needs at school. One of the students is to recieve 10ml Depokote via G-tube. It states in her care plan that her parents send it in daily in a pre fill syringe for the nurse to administer. I was hesitant about this as I have never given a med that I have not drawn up myself from the original container. I contacted the district RN and she said that is the way it is done and to give the student the med. I did and I documented that I gave pre filled syringe of med sent in from parents.

I am I doing the right thing?

[JenTheSchoolRN, BSN, RN]

Ditto on the advice listed here. Most pharmacies are understanding of "splitting" a dose between home and school; I always tell parents to ask for an extra prescription bottle to send any meds to school. Sometimes, the doctor can specify this on the order and I've found that helpful for parents. I've had more students than I can count bring in a single tablet in a plastic baggie; I groan each time, hand it back to the student. Policy here is it must come in the labelled prescription bottle or OTC bottle with order from the doctor.

An unlabeled syringe coming in with a student scares me. No clue what is in it. I wouldn't give it.

[BSNbeauty, BSN, RN]

I wouldn't feel comfortable doing this. You are bound by the 5 rights of medication administration. How can you check the five rights if you didn't draw up the meds yourself.

When I did Peds HH I had a parent that drew up the meds and wanted me to administer. I didn't feel comfortable doing that. Needless to say, I didn't last there long.

If the parents want to draw it up then they need to administer it. Why is it such a huge deal for them to supply the health office with the medication in a labeled prescription container. Goodness !

[OldDude]

As with similar medication situations...you keep the original container at school and let the parents keep the med in some other container at home.