Please Advice

You SHOULD NOT EVER give a med someone else has drawn up, unless you watched them do it. This is against all standards of nursing practice.

absolutley, never ever ever give meds you have not prepared yourself, ultimetly you are responsible for the medication as you are the one giving it. I would not even ask a co worker to give a med I had prepared, even that is out of line, at least where I work.

I have had nurses "tell" me to give meds they have prepared, and I have refused, no one can tell you that it is wrong to refuse!!!

Thank you for the replies!

I personally would never ever administer any med that I did not prepare. Today we had the same discussion about administering meds with the same nurse and I told her that I do not want to administer med that someone else prepared. She said again, that it is OK to do that because that is what they do in the OR, they draw the meds up earlier and they just administer it as they go with the procedure, even if the person who administers it didnt draw the meds up. Once again I let her know that it is wrong, and I do not want to do this. She said that this is what they all do, and if it would turn out to be the wrong med that I administer but I didnt draw it up, it wouldnt me who would get in trouble.. PLEEEEEAAAASEEE????

Who would believe this??

Anyways, it looks like we can not get settled down with this issue with the nurse, do you guys think that it would be too "mean" from me to go up to the manager and talk to her about it? Or should I just shut my mouth because am new, and they would think that I don't "fit" in the group?

By the way, I am on a training period right now, so I do have lot of questions -to make sure I do understand everything- and one of the nurse took it in a wrong way that am questioning her or their job. This let a big flame out and everyone looked at me in a bad way. I felt very bad when I find out that they took it this way, but it is al straightened out now. Although this med administrating still up in the air, so am "afraid" to go up to the manager with this problem since they "hated" me enough already right at the beginning, just because I wanted to make sure that I do absorb everything as I supposed to or asking questions.

Okay..is the medication labelled and dated and signed?

If the nurse who drew up the drug did not label/date/sign for the med I wouldn't touch it with a ten foot pole however if it had all the documentation there and I had met the nurse I would probably go ahead.

We do this all the time but we never think about it. Consider the IV hanging with meds added, do we dump the IV or do we continue with the infusion on the assumption that the nurse who mixed that drug was competent? Remember the IV is now our responsibility after that nurse has left.

It is a personal call but all the documentation must be there.I would do my own meds until you feel confidence in the people you work with.