charting medication administration

[suzee737]

I just recently started a new job at a surgery center and one of the nurses training me in endoscopy charts her conscious sedation medication in a running total instead of charting the medication dose individually with the correct time given. Instead, the next dose of versed she gives, she'll tally up from the last dose given. I don't feel comfortable charting this way but she said if it was wrong, then the accrediting agency would have caught it. She also said she did this at the hospital she used to work at. I feel it's not safe practice. Is this an acceptable practice?

[imaRN08]

i wouldnt think it would be appropriate to do that. i think it would look like the nurse gave 1 big dose instead of small doses at appropriate intervals. an attorney would have a hay day with that if something happened and it ended up in court. how would that nurse prove otherwise? .... thats my thought on it. we always chart our doses at intervals when doing sedation

[classicdame, MSN, EdD]

Would be nice if there were two columns, one for actual dose and one for running total. I don't think her practice is a safe one.