Wrong medication

[Ataphorn]

I made a mistake and punched out the wrong pills but caught it in time. Was it right to place the pills back in their blister pack and tape back up with my initials?

[iluvivt, BSN, RN]

I would have reported it to pharmacy and let them handle it.How can you except the next nurse to verify the pill.I would not administer any pill that had been tampered with.

[Ataphorn]

The pill number is on the pill and I did report it. Thank you for your feedback

[JKL33]

It strikes me as something that might have been common practice in the past but I wouldn't do it these days nor would I administer these medications as the next nurse who encountered them.

I would return them to pharmacy along with their packaging if possible with a report that they were opened in error, and follow the facility's procedure for documenting this. The pill number being on the pill doesn't account for all of the questions that would be in play once the package has been opened. For example, would you administer pills from taped up packages if you knew they had accidentally flipped out onto the filthy floor before the nurse retrieved them and taped everything back up?

Mostly I'm just soured on doing anything that isn't strictly by the book with medications or that could be twisted after the fact, due to the current practice environment.