Largest med pass

nursebelle1386 · Mar 16, 2010

I have done PRN work for state correctional facilities, one day I counted one "patient's" med load and he takes on average about 16 different medications TID......nuts!

TonyaM73, ASN, RN · Mar 16, 2010

9am tends to be the biggest for me. They have anywhere from 4 meds to 20 each.

twokidsmom,rn · Mar 16, 2010

I don't think this healthy for pts to take so many meds on an empty stomach.

Piki · Mar 16, 2010

wow, that's an early time of day to be passing so many meds. Here our daily meds are typically ordered at 0900 and 2100. Usually more a.m. meds. Certain meds are given @ 0730, such as protonix, coreg, insulins. Even with our big daily med pass @ 9 a.m. it is sometimes hard to get all your pt's meds passed on time (by 10 a.m.). The hospital where I did many student clinicals, the daily med pass was 8 a.m. :eek: I don't know how anyone could possibly get report, check vitals, and assess all their patients and give the meds by 8 a.m. That's just nuts! Another hospital I did clinicals at, their daily med pass was 10 a.m. which was more realistic.

blondy2061h, MSN, RN · Mar 16, 2010

A lot of our patients have 2000, 2100, and 2200 meds, which I'll give all at 2100 if I can (most are just separate times because of the "auto times" the computer assigns based on the dosing interval, pharmacy notes if they actually need to be given separately). This can end up being quite a few meds for some people.

morte, LPN, LVN · Mar 16, 2010

having the heavy med pass at 0600 is not appropriate, at all. It has to be for day shift convenience. Only those meds needing to be on an empty stomache should be given at that time. Such as synthroid, Vit B12, and most of the anti GERD meds.....

kcochrane · Mar 16, 2010

When I worked long term care, 0800 was the worst. I had 16-20 patents with multiple meds. It took a good 2 hours to get it done. When I worked nights, 0500 was the worse on Mondays with 10 BGs, 12 supps and multiple meds. Right now in acute care, the largest is 0900 - but I only have 5 patients. They recently changed it from 8 to 9 so that report, assessents, etc can be done first.

Forever Sunshine, ASN, RN · Mar 16, 2010

The shift I work on the biggest one for me is the 430p medpass. I don't finish all the 430 meds until about 8. Its way over the time frame but some of the patients are on quite a few meds and I am new so I don't want to make any mistakes. Plus there are some who like their pills later on so that helps lighten the load a bit. If they have a couple of HS pills and its 6pm, I will just give it to them then especially if they go to bed early.(believe me ... some do).

morte, LPN, LVN · Mar 16, 2010

The shift I work on the biggest one for me is the 430p medpass. I don't finish all the 430 meds until about 8. Its way over the time frame but some of the patients are on quite a few meds and I am new so I don't want to make any mistakes. Plus there are some who like their pills later on so that helps lighten the load a bit. If they have a couple of HS pills and its 6pm, I will just give it to them then especially if they go to bed early.(believe me ... some do).

if it actually says HS, you may get away with this....if it lists what your P+P says is HS, such as 9PM than you can get in trouble for this....if persons prefer and are competent to request meds be given in a way different that listed--and there are no contraindications--request the doctors change the times to reflect reality..

hawkfdc · Mar 16, 2010

Whiners!! At my old hospital on the renal floor there was a patient with a 30 pill am med pass and a 20 pill pm med pass, in addtional to the 5 other patients we had!!

cherrybreeze, ADN, RN · Mar 16, 2010

if it actually says HS, you may get away with this....if it lists what your P+P says is HS, such as 9PM than you can get in trouble for this....if persons prefer and are competent to request meds be given in a way different that listed--and there are no contraindications--request the doctors change the times to reflect reality..

Unless there is a specific reason it has to be given at 9pm for hs, you can adjust the time based on nursing judgement. Some things you don't need to ask the doc about.