common to have a med nurse?

[jenj1928]

I was suprised to find that the hospital I'm interning at has a specific med nurse. She/he is a LPN/LVN and administers the scheduled meds to all the patients on the floor, the prn meds are done by the RN. Is this routine practice at alot of hospitals? I was surprised to see that the RN who is assigned to the patient isn't the one administering the meds, after all they tell us in clinicals about Joint Commission and med errors and it being the responsibility of the RN to oversee all this, it just caught me off gaurd. Guess I was just wondering what your opinions on this are and if as a RN you would like this?

And let me add this is nothing against the LVN's in anyway, I guess it's just the fact that it's not "her patient" persay and it seems hard for her the med nurse to have the "whole picture" of all the patients and know when to hold meds etc....

[pagandeva2000, LPN]

I was suprised to find that the hospital I'm interning at has a specific med nurse. She/he is a LPN/LVN and administers the scheduled meds to all the patients on the floor, the prn meds are done by the RN. Is this routine practice at alot of hospitals? I was surprised to see that the RN who is assigned to the patient isn't the one administering the meds, after all they tell us in clinicals about Joint Commission and med errors and it being the responsibility of the RN to oversee all this, it just caught me off gaurd. Guess I was just wondering what your opinions on this are and if as a RN you would like this?

And let me add this is nothing against the LVN's in anyway, I guess it's just the fact that it's not "her patient" persay and it seems hard for her the med nurse to have the "whole picture" of all the patients and know when to hold meds etc....

I am an LPN myself, and no, I am not offended with your comment. What I see is that the LPN does have a nursing license of her own, and we are definitely taught the principals of medication administration. Keeping that in mind, the MAR usually has the major diagnoses listed on it, and the parameters of administration should be explained during the orientation to the facility or written on the MAR. The LPN would probably refer to the RN if there is a question about an order. Also, because we do have our own license, if we feel uncomfortable administering a medication we can hold it until we speak to the provider and RN for clarification. Maybe there would a reason that the LPN was not aware of that would deem it safe to adminster the medication.

While this is not a practice at my hospital in particular, we do have a similar practice, where the charge nurse will be double assigned with an LPN who will administer medications to about 10 patients. She will not document notes (unless necessary), but, this will take some of the load off of the charge nurse to perform other duties. Hope this answers your question a bit better.

[queenjean]

Argh! Our hospital just tried to go to this...it's not working so well. LPNs were used to taking their own pts, and RNs are not enjoying NOT having their own pts, but rather sharing them.

Most LPNs have jumped ship, a few are hanging on because they graduate soon, a couple are just sucking it up and taking the hit. It was very sudden--no real discussion about it, just came to work one day and the policy was there.

Urgh. Obviously I don't like it; but I'm a little biased. I sure with the right attitude and staff orientation, it could work well.

[Chaya, ASN, RN]

It would make me very uncomfortable to have anyone else administer all my meds for me (I'm not talking about giving a pain med while I'm at lunch). Communication would have to be so extensive it would almost be faster to do it myself. I feel responsible to know what my pt's pain level/ VS etc are before the med, exactly when the med was given, (ie. I will time dressing changes after a sched pain med) how they responded and trends in general over my shift.

[catlvr]

I am a med nurse (LPN) at a psych hospital. We have 24 pts on the floor, and usually 2 RNs. It works well, since we sit in on shift report and the RN tells us anything that is relevant; and in turn we pass infomation back to the RN. As someone else said, good communication is the key!

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[spider11]

I would hate that too. I like being informed on all aspects of my pt's and their care. I specifically didn't apply to certain facilities because I didn't want to be just a med pass nurse. (not that there's anything wrong with it)