Crushing Pills?

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Specializes in Home Health, L&D.

I have been working in a nursing home temporarily for the last month until I can start my home health job.

Prior to this I was working in a hospital- mostly giving IV/PO whole meds.

Anyways,

In nursing homes-

I have to crush a lot of pills-

Is there any way the dust can get into your system?

I know this might sound crazy. however, I've noticed when I a certain pill for GERD- i smell mint.

Just wondering....:nurse:

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Specializes in Home Health, L&D.

just bumping this because im' pretty concerned about it...:confused:

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Specializes in LTC,Hospice/palliative care,acute care.

I've been wondering about this for years-I magine all the antibiotics I am inhaling will make one heck of a superbug in my system someday.I wonder if there have been any studies on this? It really should be more of a concern.In my opinion if the resident can not take the med whole or in a liquid form then it should be dc'd...

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Specializes in Home Health, L&D.

Yes- i worry about the ABX- but more so the Narcs!!

YUCK!

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I know when I used to work in a nursing home there was a certain time every evening when I worked a certain section where I would get flushed and feel funny.

After a while I attributed it to some pill I must be crushing that I was having some reaction to, although I never narrowed it down more than that.

So I would say a definite yes. You could always wear a mask while crushing if you are really concerned.

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I worry about the safety of crushing pills. I never even stopped to consider the problem of inhaling the dust. The taste for the poor resident has to be horrible, especially when you have 5-6 pills or more crushed together in one bite, there has to be a better way.

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Specializes in Home Health, L&D.

I just wonder if enough of the dust get into your system- if it would ever make you have a false pos on a drug test...

I have never heard of this...

But no one I've talked about can give me a straight answer.

My mother (a retired nurse)

said that if that were the case that no nurse could ever be allowed to change jobs--- hmmm but it does make me wonder........:eek:

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Just wondering what type of crushing system you use?

yrs ago we used the two paper cup method and now we use the Silent Knight..you put the pills in a little plastic bag and it crushes it.

Very little dust either way.

How about asking a pharm?

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I was wondering about this as well. We have A LOT of pills to crush. What we do is put the medication in a paper cup, cover that medication with a paper cup and crush. Even with that method though, I still see powder pill residue in the air. I just try not to breath in and hold open the med room door.

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Specializes in Home Health, L&D.

At my facility we use the two cup method also... and i hate my job. lol.

and I got new job in home health- but I just don't want crushing so many pills all of the time to mess it up- that's why I'm so stressed about this I guess...

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We also use the Silent Knight. I would encourage use of it.

In the beginning use of Penicillin many nurses developed an allergy to that drug. The cross over to other similar ones almost killed my mother with a horrible reaction.

I think it is something we need to be aware of. I wonder if OSHA has ever addressed it. I'll try to look it up in their website. It can be a challenging site.:eek:

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I did not find anything @ OSHA, except about coal dust, etc. I did write and ask them. We'll see if/when they respond. Perhaps others have better luck with that site.:yawn:

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