At the hospital I work, we generally have 8 patients. Recently I brought up the question regarding passing of medications for the 9 pm pass. If you give only 10 min. per patient, then that is a minimum of 80 minutes. This is very conservative as it does not take into account prn meds you have to stop to give, blood sugars that are due at 9 pm., having to wait in turn to get to the med dispense cart, crushing meds for G-Tubes, or for poor swallowing patients, IV meds, etc. We were made to sign a form for a commitment to "good patient care", yet when I brought up that the "time" of medication administration was one of the 5 rights and that either the meds were given untimely, or documentation was falsified if you gave them at 11 or 11:30 pm. My manager would not answer. What do you think?
Nursing News