order interpretation debate

Always the best answer of course was gonna ask our clinical nurse specialist next time I work to..just found it interesting that over half the other people I talked had done that..the other half said they hadn't..just somethingg I wanted to ask a group of fellow nurses to see about how often this order is be misinterpreted

I had this question at work not too long ago. The answer I got was opposite of what sapphire18 said. I was told with an order of 1-2 mg Dilaudid Q6H you can give 1 mg at 7AM, 2nd mg at 10AM. You cannot give any more until 4PM, 6 hours after LAST dose. I don't really understand the rationale.. anyways, I would have clarified the order with the MD and gotten it changed to 1mg Q3H, then there is no guessing game if it is okay to give that way.

if this order is IV, it is totally inappropriate to begin with. The half life of Dilaudid is too short. Not sure on PO. I wouldn't have thought to do it her way, but it makes sense, d/t the half life issue. Need better order.

I had this question at work not too long ago. The answer I got was opposite of what sapphire18 said. I was told with an order of 1-2 mg Dilaudid Q6H you can give 1 mg at 7AM, 2nd mg at 10AM. You cannot give any more until 4PM, 6 hours after LAST dose. I don't really understand the rationale.. anyways, I would have clarified the order with the MD and gotten it changed to 1mg Q3H, then there is no guessing game if it is okay to give that way.

I rechecked with some people I work with and I was mistaken. You can give the 1mg Q3H. It's when you give 1mg at 7AM then 1mg at 10AM and want to give the full 2mg again at 1PM. You COULD give the 1mg just not the two. So while I would still check with the MD, what your co-worker was doing wasn't wrong.