CNAs filling out home med sheet?

[Town & Country]

The other day at work, we were inserviced on yet another new "performance improvement" form. It's supposed to be a streamlined new way for the patients to get their home meds reordered after discharge.

Anyway, it's a form that the nurses are responsible for.

The home meds and the meds ordered in the hospital are listed (as written as a prescription), and there are check-off boxes the physician can use to order them to be continued or dc'ed after discharge.

We were told these are actual med orders that would replace the MD writing scripts after discharge.

Then the nurse giving the inservice said "at your discretion, you can allow your tech to sit with the patient and fill it in, and the doctor can sign it."

A couple of people brought up the legality of a nurse aide writing down meds that are then signed as actual orders, what do you think?

Opinions?

[TheCommuter, BSN, RN]

My post is certainly not intended to offend any member of the healthcare team.

However, many of the aides/techs I've met cannot even properly spell many of the medications out there. I've seen a few instances where the patient has had to spell the medication because the aide has never heard of it previously. Only a person who has had abundant exposure to pharmacology and medications should be able to complete a home med sheet. With all of the sound-alike meds out there, a single misspelling could spell out disaster.

[chadash]

My post is certainly not intended to offend any member of the healthcare team.

However, many of the aides/techs I've met cannot even properly spell many of the medications out there. I've seen a few instances where the patient has had to spell the medication because the aide has never heard of it previously. Only a person who has had abundant exposure to pharmacology and medications should be able to complete a home med sheet. With all of the sound-alike meds out there, a single misspelling could spell out disaster.

No offense taken. You are right.

[HappyNurse2005, RN]

We recently started using something similar (is yours a pink sheet by chance?)

It has a space at top to write in medication allergies, then where info was obtained from (pt, family, med record, rx bottles, etc), and is pt taking home meds as ordered?

then, a line for name of med, dose, route and frequency we write that in then, a spot to circle Y or N for "med already ordered" "continue on admission" and "continue on discharge"

nurse is supposed to fill it out, then admitting doc signs it, and d/c doc signs it. too bad some of them just dont do it!

anyways, to the point. NO, a CNA shouldn't fill it out. SOmeone who doesn't know what the meds are/what htey are for shouldn't be doing it. A RN would recognize if the pt names off a med that makes no sense for their conditon, a dose that is way too high/too low, etc.

The nurse has to do it here. It even says "admitting nurse's signature"

even before we used that sheet, the na's could ask about the pt's home (do you have heat/water/gas/etc) but never about meds.