Nurse wanted me to finish passing her pulled meds

[StacyZnaks]

So I work night shift and I'm fairly new to this job site and only trained on this med cart once. But nothing I've done before so it can't be too hard. We'll the nurse I signed off with said there was a 1hr+ delay, which is understandable due to our kind of nursing specialty. But she had pulled out 8 or more meds of patients who were unable to get their meds. I was very confused as once again I never worked this cart before. She wanted me to pass her 4:30pm meds with my 8pm meds and told me that she had already signed out the meds for that time as well. I should have vocalized that I was uncomfortable with this to her so she could possibly do them herself. Anyway I ended up not passing them due to such a late window! And the fact that they were already signed out! Hearsay? Well later into the shift, long after the day shift nurse left, a patient became understandably upset bc she didn't receive her med and I escalated it to the supervisor who they then did to the Don. I just feel bad bc I don't want to get anyone fired or written up bc of me, yet along create a toxic work environment! I know I should have told her then and there that I'm not gonna pass these meds! What do you guys think? 

[SilverBells, BSN]

Nope, nope, nope...

I wouldn't pass the medications, either.   I don't administer any medications that I have not personally drawn up or pulled out myself.   She should have stayed to pass the medications herself, or, if it was still early enough to give them, she could have passed it along to you to have you pull out your own medications (sounds like it wasn't, though?).   Either way, you're just asking for trouble by administering medications that someone else pulled out.    So, good on you for that.  

I do agree that you should have informed her that you didn't feel comfortable administering medications she had pulled out AND marked off as being administered (another no-no: documenting something you didn't actually do).  Not only would this have given her the opportunity to administer them herself, but it would have also sent her a message that what she was asking for was not acceptable.  I would have also requested her to strike out the medications she had marked off as being given.  Otherwise, I would have been leery to even pull out new ones myself to administer.   

Regardless, I do believe that the supervisor did need to be involved.   It has nothing to do with getting anyone in trouble or creating a hostile work environment and everything to do with promoting patient safety.   Asking another nurse to administer medications you have pulled out is wrong, plain and simple, and is not in a patients' best interest.   

 

[Davey Do]

If the patient's name band is scanned, the med is scanned, the right patient receives the right med, generally speaking, a little late, that's okay.

Pulling the meds from the pyxis isn't a big deal, as long as no med errors are made in administration.