church and med pass

[MelissaLPN, ASN, LPN, RN]

I need some advice on whether to request a change in med pass times. On Sundays, residents are in church from 4p-5p and go directly to dinner from 5p-6p. This means I can not correctly administer the 5p med pass. Before 4p is a med error, after 6 is a med error and administering during church is interfering with the residents rights. What do I do? I am not sure if they will change the med time just to accomedate Sundays, but how can I pass incorrectly every Sunday?

When I asked my co-workers about it they simply replied " just dont do it when states here." ??? No one can tell me how I could do it right.

[Sun0408, ASN, RN]

Can you document resident off the floor or in your case not available and in your notes give a detailed reason.. I work hospital but we have several options for giving meds late or early..

[PurpleLVN]

Do all of the residents go to church? If not, pass meds to the residents that don't attend service between 4-5pm and then pass meds to the others during dinner (5-6pm). Or address the request for time change with DON. I don't see a problem since it's just for Sunday!!

[elkpark]

I work in acute care, not LTC, but legitimate, accepted reasons in my facility for giving a medication late or early include "patient request" and "patient off floor." Either of those would apply in this situation, I would think.

[Not_A_Hat_Person, RN]

Can you give it late, and document it as "resident not available?"

[FLArn]

Sorry misread OP -- nothing helpful to add to replies already posted

[CoffeeRTC, BSN, RN]

How many residents are we talking about? There are a couple of things you can do depending on how many residents you are talking about.....make them wait to go to the dining room, give them their meds during dinner, give them early or give them late and just document why.

[Forever Sunshine, ASN, RN]

Honestly.. if the resident was at home. And they went to mass at 4 and dinner afterwards and didn't get home until after 6.. They would take their medication then.

I would give as much as I could to those not in mass at 4pm. Catch some as they are going to dinner. And get the rest after. They aren't going to die because they got their medication 2 hours late.

[debRN0417]

I agree. Give as many as you can to those who are not at church. Then the rest when you can after church or dinner. The other posters are right...if they were at home they would take them when they got back from church. Maybe get an MD order to say something like "May administer 5 p.m. medications when resident available..." if you are afraid of getting into a "state" problem. As a surveyor I wouldn't freak out about it, but I can't speak for others.

[rn/writer, RN]

As far as I know, giving meds during dinner is not allowed. It's a possible breach of privacy, and it's just not a good idea.

You can speak to each of the residents about how they wish to handle the situation. Some may be okay with anything you devise. Some may outright state that they are "refusing" the meds till after dinner.

If a patient were unavailable because they came back late from an outing, you'd have the same set-up. As long as you are documenting with a reasonable explanation, I don't see how the higher-ups can ask for anything more.