What is proper way for 2 nurses to count and sign narcs?

Nurses General Nursing

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Here we go again......when 2 nurses count and sign off on the narcotics, isn't it customary to sign/initial on EACH narc/med sheet and not on one blank sheet that is suppossed to represent ALL the narcs, yet none of them are listed on said sheet????? :clown:

we sign on the daily check page. pharmacy signs on the drug itself page however they only check once a month

Specializes in ICU, Telemetry, Med-Surg.

What does your policy and procedure manual say? Have you asked your immediate supervisor?

What does your "daily check page" have on it? I would assume you would require each narc with pt.'s name listed.

Ohhh....policy and procedures. Now that's a whole other can of worms.

One nurse looked at each med labeled with the pt name, dose, etc and that had to be cross-checked against an individual sign-out sheet. The amt of meds left needed to match the number of available doses on the sign-out sheet. The sign-out sheets and meds were also double checked when they arrived from pharmacy. The count was always a pain, but certainly an integral part of the job!

No blank sheets allowed - seems like nothing but potential trouble there.

Specializes in Psych.

At my facility the coming and leaving shift sign a sheet saying they checked the narcotics and sign a sheet for each narcotic verifying the count.

Specializes in Hospice, LTC, Rehab, Home Health.

Each controlled med should have a sign out sheet that is signed by the nurse administering the dose at the time s/he gives the dose. This sheet has the name, concentration and amount dispensed from pharmacy printed at the top and the body of the sheet should have columns for date, time, nurse's signature, on hand amt., amt given, amt. received, and amt remaining. These are the sheets that are compared to the med package. Then there is a sheet that has columns for date, time and nurse counting off and nurse counting on. This is where the nurses sign verifying that the count is correct. Hope this helps.

What does your "daily check page" have on it? I would assume you would require each narc with pt.'s name listed.

date time the statement that all drug have been checked i did participate in a check that we had more tablets of a drug than we should and the sign of the two checkers can be an RN, doctor or pharmacist i have never seen a medic do a narc audit, did however get one to check ature some morphine with me(all controlled drug opiates et0c) require 2 suitable staff RN, pharmacist or medic to check

All in patient narc are ward stock we request pharmacy to supply so we count stock, pt that have narc(control drugs) individual dispensed are either came in with them (and no one is available to take them home) or are being discharge with a week supply those we list by pt, drug types and strength and no in the cd cupboard.d

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