A new pet peeve of mine

[TracyB,RN]

Maybe I am just INCREDIBLY anal retentive.... I absolutely can't stand it when people misspell drug names. I just want to jump out of my skin every time I see that!! I just can't believe how common it is. Don't people look things up anymore? I can't imagine that things like Risperdal would be spelled wrong SOOOO frequently, if people were really looking things up before giving a drug they are not familiar with.

Thoughts???

[UM Review RN, ASN, RN]

Oh boy, one of my pet peeves too. Phenergen is NOT phenergren

Actually, it's Phenergan.

:rotfl: See what happens when I get upset? That was a typo, honest.

[PHTLS]

What I hate are all these companies who put trade names and generic names on the same med!

I blame half the medication errors on these f******!

[dadofdog]

Do you know why your pt is taking the med? Then a spelling mistake won't matter will it!?!

[Karen_tn_37211]

Quote: I really do hate misspelled words and bad grammar and I don't think it's particularly anal to be that way.

I hate it when people omit a comma. I hate "run-on" sentences. :rotfl: :rotfl: :uhoh21:

[Nurse Ratched, RN]

Tracy, I'm in complete agreeement with you - misspelling some drug names can promote med errors. It's not a matter of being anal retentive just for the sake of it. Real patient consequences are at stake.

[pricklypear]

It drives me crazy when people pronounce cardizem as cardIAzem. I don't know why, it just does... Or how 'bout when people describe crackles as "course?" Oh yeah, I see "aggitated" all the time. And I thought I was the only one!!

[Marie_LPN, RN, LPN, RN]

Prostrate (instead of prostate) is still my #1 peeve.

(Cute avatar, PricklyPear!! lol)

[Chaya, ASN, RN]

Nothing wrong with being anal about spelling drug names correctly. The difference of a letter or two can mean two completely different drugs, such as cerebex and celebrex. I've often wondered how many drug errors are due to bad handwriting as well.

Can't even count the number of times we're trying to take an order off with two nurses and a secretary squinting at some doc's handwriting (who of course isn't reachable by then) and trying to put the order in context so we can figure out what the heck med the doc wanted...

[rnmi2004]

Do you know why your pt is taking the med? Then a spelling mistake won't matter will it!?!

I have rarely seen a doctor include the "why" on a drug order. In LTC, most residents have multiple medical dx's. If a doc writes an order that could be Celebrex or Cerebex (although I believe it is "Cerebyx") and it is for a patient with arthritis and a hx of seizures, then what? I think med orders should be printed from some type of software program.

[CHESSIE]

I completely agree with you. I am now retired, but recall vividly trying to help a ward clerk decipher the illegible writing of some physicians, or do this myself on the evening shift when no clerk was available. In the near future the hospital, from which I retired, will institute a new ruling, whereby doctors will have to type their orders into the computer at the nurse's station. The orders will be simultaneously be sent to the pharmacy and also printed for the patient's chart. Needless to say, some of the physicians are balking at this.

[Marie_LPN, RN, LPN, RN]

I have rarely seen a doctor include the "why" on a drug order. In LTC, most residents have multiple medical dx's. If a doc writes an order that could be Celebrex or Cerebex (although I believe it is "Cerebyx") and it is for a patient with arthritis and a hx of seizures, then what? I think med orders should be printed from some type of software program.

But what would be done if the software goes down?

[UM Review RN, ASN, RN]

But what would be done if the software goes down?

We have down-time requisitions for that kind of problem.