HUC and accessing drug info

[BettyPalen]

Hi

I am wondering how HUCs (Health Unit Clerks) keep track of which drug is an antibiotic, which is narcotic, heart med etc to ensure they know when to figure out auto stops and in order to write the appropriate paperwork.

I am asking as my instructor was very emphatic we are not allowed cell phones on the floor but I am thinking one would require quick access to this information to confirm what is what.

Thanks very much for your time

betty

[Whispera, MSN, RN]

Some keep paper lists. Then there's usually an internet-available computer nearby. No phone is necessary.

[chare]

I am wondering how HUCs (Health Unit Clerks) keep track of which drug is an antibiotic, which is narcotic, heart med etc to ensure they know when to figure out auto stops and in order to write the appropriate paperwork.

I'm sorry, but how is this the HUC's responsibility?

[mmc51264, BSN, MSN, RN]

All of ordering is done MD/PA/NP. HUC has nothing to do with anything at all r/t med orders

[JustBeachyNurse, LPN]

The HUC does not need to keep track as this is the prescribing provider's responsibility often with pharmacy follow up/QC. There is nothing relating to medication orders that is the HUC responsibility

[JustBeachyNurse, LPN]

How long is this HUC class? You seem to be studying for your HUC class for going on two years now.

[Whispera, MSN, RN]

If HUCs transcribe medication orders onto MARs (some do), they sometimes put an ending date on the form. I've seen this at two different hospitals.

It's the nurses' (2 of them) responsibility to verify the information.

[BettyPalen]

First of all I am in Winnipeg, Canada and I took the HUC course at Red River College. It has been drilled into us that we need to know which meds are antibiotics and which are narcotics and I have to calculate auto stop times and dates. So, for IV antis its 4 days and iv narcs are 3 days.

thoughts/

betty

[Princess Bubblegum]

Where I work (as a HUC) we don't do anything medication related at all, ever. The pharmacist or the ordering MD takes care of that. I don't even think the RNs can adjust start times without having the pharmacy do it.

[CryssyD]

I have never worked anywhere--in the US--where something like stop dates are a unit clerk's responsibility. If there are standing orders for this sort of thing, the pharmacist and/or nurse certainly know what they are; even on handwritten MARs, unit clerks shouldn't be inputting anything to do with medication orders because of the potential liability involved. Stop dates are usually individualized anyway, especially for antibiotics--if you don't know that stopping an antibiotic before an adequate course is completed could be dangerous, for example, then you have no business meddling with stop dates or anything else that affects medication orders; you just don't have the education for it.