I didn't know this could happen!

up in away

I am not there yet, our clinicals start later this month, but it has been stressed that meds are received ON TIME. For us there is a half an hour window on either side of what time meds are ordered for. Late meds can be a serious risk depending on the med. Think pain med that a pt needed well before they were due to get it and have been waiting for relief.

Was she late or slow? Because they're different things (granted that being slow can make you late...but they are still different issues). Did she give the meds outside of the prescribed time? Or did the instructor just think it took her to long to go through the 5 rights and 3 checks?

The instructor said she was going to slow, but my friend said she had like 12 meds to pass to the one patient. She said when she went into the med room my friend should have been checking the meds at a much quicker pace.

Maybe the instructor interpreted the slow pace as, the student didn't know the meds well enough?

I'd advise the student to make an appointment to speak with the instructor to find out the instructor's concern. At this point, it doesn't matter if the student agrees or not, she needs to be open to the instructors concern and incorporate any changes suggested.

Just my .02

Peace,

Cathie

I would prefer to go slow to making a medication error. This was the first time the student passing medication, how cruel can one instructor be? We are all student who are not perfect..we are at school to learn or else we would have been else where. Yes, passing meds on time is important but she should give the student a verbal warning not a Zero..Sick!

It may have been a little harsh. Some meds do have to be given right on time such as insulins, ABX that have a peak and trough, Dilantian, ect.

Just a suggestion for your friend, have her make a list of the most common drugs given on Med/Surg and have them written out briefly; what they are for; what the side effects are; which meds they can not be given with; ect. Then if there are a few that are not on that list then there will be less for her to look up.

Also, many med books come with a CD-ROM that you can look up all the drug in the book; she can just cut and past the information she needs onto a document that she can condense. Maybe start a thread on here asking med/surg nurses to list the top 20 meds they give.

I would prefer to go slow to making a medication error. This was the first time the student passing medication, how cruel can one instructor be? We are all student who are not perfect..we are at school to learn or else we would have been else where. Yes, passing meds on time is important but she should give the student a verbal warning not a Zero..Sick!

Well yeah, if those were my only two choices I'd prefer slow to a mistake as well....but I'd also hope for a door number 3.

The truth is that we don't know the heart of the instructor's concern.

Maybe your friend wasn't as prepared as they needed to be to give meds. That will slow you down and also makes you unsafe if you dont know and understand what you are giving and why.

I will give her you all's suggestions. I think that was really sick of the instructor to give her a zero for the whole day, and it's out of a big number of points too, not just one hundred. I know you should pass meds on time, but she was just slow on checking her 5 rights, and things. The instructor said she should be going a lot faster when pulling the meds from the medication room. I personally didn't see the need for a zero to be given for something like that, but her instructor said in the real world of nursing you are going to have to be able to pull your meds quickly and check them quickly!