I am entering my last month as a student nurse and as we are getting to take care of more patients (4-5) I am having more issues with time management. (Go figure...lol).
My question is this.... How realistic is it that every med you give to every patient is within the 1 hour time frame?
Also, do you assess all your patients first, then get each of their meds together and go in a separate time, or is it wiser to get their meds ready, go in and assess them and give the meds at the same time (based on if there aren't any contraindications to the meds that you found in your assessment)?
Sometimes it would seem more manageable if you did the assessment and morning meds at the same time, but I'm not sure it is wise.
We do bedside report so i get to my patients and a quick introduction at that time, I'll also ask about pain at that time and check levels on IV pumps. It really depends on the patients i have but I will either go around and get vital signs and update whiteboards first, which is what i prefer to do. Then go around and do full assessments and med-passes together. We have an hour before and an hour after in which to pass meds and I would say I'm able to (barring pharmacy issues) administer 99.5% of my meds "on time"
I used to be responsible for 80 residents, 52 residents, etc. down to 21 residents, depending upon what facility, what area, and what shift I was working. I worried about getting my med passes done at all, much less on time. Truly. No one ever bothered me about it either.
LouisVRN, RN
672 Posts
We do bedside report so i get to my patients and a quick introduction at that time, I'll also ask about pain at that time and check levels on IV pumps. It really depends on the patients i have but I will either go around and get vital signs and update whiteboards first, which is what i prefer to do. Then go around and do full assessments and med-passes together. We have an hour before and an hour after in which to pass meds and I would say I'm able to (barring pharmacy issues) administer 99.5% of my meds "on time"