Giving meds in clinicals

Leda · Feb 9, 2006

In the program I'm affiliated with pharmacology is integrated throughout all of the nursing courses. Students begin passing meds following receiving the theoretical information about safe administration of medications. There is an associated competency based skills lab. The first scheduled med pass is to one patient at the end of their first semester. (4 semester ADN program).

I should add that the introduction to safe med administration and the skills lab in semester one concerns PO meds only. At the start of semester two they receive theoretical and competency based skills for injectable meds. IV med adminstration (theory and skills lab) takes place in semester three.

The associated clinical experiences ideally match the theory presentation, so that students pass meds they have studied and been tested on. This is great on paper but it doesn't work out well in practice. Students in this program look up the meds prior to the clinical experience.

I did teach at another school that also used the integrated pharmacology approach. They assessed students' knowledge of pharmacology by providing the students with a long list of medications that correlated with the course and clinical content to be studied, prior to the start of the course. Before the student could pass meds on clinical they had to receive a passing grade on the written exam (NCLEX-style questions). The same approach was used to assess their dosage calculation abilities. For each exam they had two chances to achieve a passing grade. If they didn't make the grade they failed the course.

It would be interesting to hear what other programs are doing.

land64shark · Feb 9, 2006

Student here. I am in my first semester of a 4 semester ADN program. We will be passing meds and doing injections this semester. (Yeah, I'm surprised too.) Our po meds skills check-off is in 2 weeks, so we'll be available to pass them after that. (Injections check-off is in mid-March.) Pharmacology is a seperate class in 2nd semester, however we used our pharm book just yesterday in class.

VickyRN, MSN, DNP, RN · Feb 9, 2006

The pharmacology in our ADN program is integrated (no separate course), as it will be in all ADN programs in the state of NC, beginning fall 2007. We start our med passes (PO only) in the second half of the first semester (out of 5 semesters). At the beginning of the 2nd semester, the students may administer intramuscular and subcutaneous injections. By the middle of the 2nd semester, the students may administer intravenous medications (primary, secondary, and IV push). We do not allow our students to administer chemotherapy or experimental drugs. No IV push medications with pediatric patients. Hope this helps :)

kids · Feb 9, 2006

The 6 quarter ADN program in my city also does integrated pharmacology.

Students administer meds based on which quarter they are in and then only after passing the relevent skills lab and dosage calculation test.

By the end of the 2nd quarter they are administering topical & PO meds independently, IM & SQ with oversight and IV with direct supervision.

rhenmag9 · Feb 19, 2006

my students started giving meds( iv, oral and im) after passing theoretical teaching, 4th sem after minor subjects... i always tell them check the route and dosages...computations in ivs and dosages are disscussed in theoretical/lectures, and then students apply this theories in the clinical area...lectures are pre- requisites, if they fail, they have to wait 2 sems(1yr.) b4 enrolling to next sem... :rolleyes:

god never promises to remove us from our struggles. he does promise, however, to change the way we look at them. max lucado...

Lisa CCU RN, RN · Mar 16, 2006

We passed PO meds the fourth week of school and we can do whatever we have been checked off on in skills lab or whatever our clinical instructor will help us to do. After we did injections in lab, we were allowed to to them with our instructor with us.

luvmy2angels · Mar 16, 2006

Former student...we had our oral med check off the last week of level 1 (there are 3 levels in our program, this is for LPN), and we got to pass oral meds with strict supervision of our instructor once or twice. In level 2 we did injections check offs and and started pharm. During clinical in this level we pulled all our meds, had them doubled check by the instructor and then we were free to adminster them on our own. We were NEVER allowed to give meds without first having them double checked by instructor.

romhee17 · Mar 17, 2006

after our capping/pinning in our school our clinical instructor allow us to prepare/give medication/s to the patient... but it doesnt mean that we are soooo good at pharmacology... coz they allow us to look at the drug hand book at the nurse's station... was that good or bad?

BeenThereDoneThat74, MSN, RN · Mar 18, 2006

after our capping/pinning in our school our clinical instructor allow us to prepare/give medication/s to the patient... but it doesnt mean that we are soooo good at pharmacology... coz they allow us to look at the drug hand book at the nurse's station... was that good or bad?

I should hope that you'll always be looking at the drug book...for the rest of your career (not every time you give every med tho).

charebec65 · Mar 18, 2006

We had pharmacology first term but it is also integrated throughout the program. We had to pass tests and labs prior to passing them...then it's only done with our clinical instructor on hand. We started passing meds in the second term (PO, INJ & Gtube). We have to have any meds we are to be passing memorized prior to administration too. I've just started third term.

mariedoreen · Mar 18, 2006

All routes but IV push by week 12. IV push came a year later and only with supervision. As stated above, had to pass several dose math competencies throughout the program as well as labs and med pass scenarios.