Would you give a drug someone else pulled from a pyxis?

Nurses Medications

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For example: if they handed you a pill still in the wrapper? You know it's the right pt/right med etc....there is an EMAR record.

I'm NOT talking about giving a syringe full of a medicine you have no way of confirming what exactly it is...(that should be obvious)

Yes, of course. If someone is that sly and can tamper a medication and reblister(?) the package, how could I possibly compete with that mastermind?

And I guess I would add that a Pyxis/med cabinet gets stocked by a pharm tech, so I would trust a nurse grabbing it, just like I have to trust the tech who stocked the cabinet. :)

Specializes in RN-BC, ONC, CEN... I've been around.

No problem here, I've administered meds that were pulled by another nurse and I've pulled meds for a nurse who needed them.

If its still in the blister pack with all the info on it (drug, strength etc) and I had the MAR I'd be fine with it. I've given meds pulled by another nurse that were still in its individual pack and I've pulled meds for another nurse that way.

Yes, and if it is an emergency you should. As the primary nurse you do not leave the patient, other people bring things to you and that includes meds.

Specializes in Neuro ICU and Med Surg.
At the facility where I work, the night shift nursing staff pulls all of day shift's a.m. meds and leaves them in a locked medication cart. Management's rationale is that "day shift is too busy to pull the morning medications."

Really? I can't figure out how busy they are that they can't be pulling out their own meds. Seriously?

Specializes in Pedi.
For example: if they handed you a pill still in the wrapper? You know it's the right pt/right med etc....there is an EMAR record.

I'm NOT talking about giving a syringe full of a medicine you have no way of confirming what exactly it is...(that should be obvious)

Why not? If it's in the wrapper and you can see that you have been handed "oxycodone 5 mg", I don't see why it would be an issue.

Specializes in Med/Surg,Cardiac.

So guys, what would happen if you pulled a controlled for someone else and it was never delivered to the patient? I'd be leary to pull stuff like that for someone I didn't know.

~ No One Can Make You Feel Inferior Without Your Consent -Eleanor Roosevelt ~

Specializes in Med/Surg, LTACH, LTC, Home Health.
Really? I can't figure out how busy they are that they can't be pulling out their own meds. Seriously?
Believe it or not, if you are assigned the right set of patients, their families won't allow you time to do anything! I actually had to have another nurse give my meds because the families were so ***** relentless, that I just didn't have time to even GO to the med room. At the end of the shift, the charge nurse came to me and said, "if you will come back tomorrow, I promise you that I won't give those patients to you as long as they remain here". She felt so guilty because I went down that hall at the beginning of the shift and LITERALLY, didn't come back up the hall until AFTER the next shift took over. I was an LPN on a med/surg floor when that happened. The next day, I came to work but I didn't clock in until AFTER the assignment was made...you know, just in case I felt ill suddenly and mysteriously. Lol!
Specializes in Psych.

I will give most meds, as long as they are still in the packaging. I will pull meds for people when asked. I will only pull narcotics/ count meds when the person is in the same room with me and I see them actually give the pill.

If its in the packaging and you look at the mar then it's not a problem. We also do it in an emergency all the time, especially codes or rapid sequence intubation when there are doctors barking at you and chaos all around you and the nurse or pharmacist who drew up the med into the syringe is standing next to you. Not ideal, but it happens all the time!

Yes, I would.

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