7:30 meds? Who is responsible for giving?

[Manda92]

My nurse manager is constantly coming up with new rules. One of the latest ones is we must give 730 meds. My shift is from 7p-7a. We are required to be on the floor by 630 to give report. Since we cannot give the 730 meds until 630 we are scrambling to give the meds and then give report and be out by 730. If we clock out late too many times, we can get in trouble. I feel like this not only stresses us out, but it is not safe because not only are we rushing but most meds are scheduled at 730 because they are to be given with breakfast. I just want to know is this common practice or are we the only ones required to give meds due after the end of our shift?

[Graduatenurse14]

Overnight RN's give the 7:00 am Synthroid and since the breakfast trays are now coming so early, we give the Insulin based on the morning glucose checks too.

[Graduatenurse14]

If you are working with Epic McKesson Meditech or Allscripts 0700 meds are in the dayshift column in the EMR. Likewise any 1900 meds are in the nightshift column and are not flagged as due until that time.

To avoid confusion I do not routinely give meds that are scheduled to be given by the oncoming shift and I would not want the off going shift to give meds that are scheduled for my shift. This is a standard practice in hospitals.

I work with Allscript's Sunrise and ours isn't set up to see what column is Dayshift or Nightshift. The scheduled meds are all yellow and if say the 8:00 am meds aren't given by 9:00 am they all turn red. Maybe your hospital's IT Dept fixed it or asked Allscripts to customize it that way or maybe mine did.