Pre pouring of medication???

[HGiannelli]

I work at a county jail in Maine. There has been a great debate here over whether pre pouring meds is OK or not. We used to pre pour ( for ourselves only) but when our new company took over, they said that prepouring is illegal and we had to stop. Med pass takes a lot longer. Also, do your officers do mouth checks? Right now, we do the mouth checks ourselves. The officer is usually present somewhere in the housing unit, but not always right beside us. I'm especially curious about the prepouring!!

[SinMiedo]

It's "discouraged" at my facility, but not outright banned per policy. The only stipulation is that the nurse who pre-pours must administer the meds. Personally, I pre-pour my meds because trying to locate the correct meds in a med cart that's generally a disaster while standing in at the front of a 50 inmate long line feels like it's asking for a med error. I like to be able to check and double check myself without added time pressure.

[LPNMary]

Does prepouring meds save time, really? Seems like it is double work.

[OrganizedChaos, LVN]

I never pre-poured anywhere until I got to my current job. It really didn't take that long to pop meds for the inmates right there because once I got to know the cart & where all the meds were it didn't take that long.

[SinMiedo]

It's not necessarily quicker, per se, but I find that my med lines go a lot more smoothly and I make fewer mistakes. Plus, I have gotten pretty quick at doing it, so it only takes me about 30 minutes total to pre pop. It's just my preference, because I have found that I tend to rush when popping on the floor, which leads to screw ups. Basically, whatever works for you. :)

[LisaLPN7]

I worked a total of 4 shifts in a county jail managed by QCHC before learning it wasn't for me. One of the main reason I resigned was pre-pouring of meds. There were two med passes--7am and 5pm. Meds were pre-poured daily around 2pm for that evening's pass and the next morning's pass. That meant most mornings you were passing meds not poured by you. My license is worth more than that.

[GrannyLpn2005, BSN, RN]

We pre-pour our meds as well......and mine are sometimes poured by another nurse. I have no issue with any of that because before I go out onto the floor, I always check my pills. I want to make sure they are getting the right meds. To me it does save on time, but I believe it is up to each facility and nurse to determine what is right with them.

[valzRN, ASN, RN]

I think that it's different from state to state. You would have to actually check the state regs for your state. In Florida, the only thing that we are "allowed" to pre-pour are for our IMs in confinement. (That is for any correctional facility, jail or prison.) That is... they are not in open pop (with the ability to come to the nurse) and the nurse has to go door to door for each IM. The ones in confinement are locked up 23 hrs of the day so we have to go to them. The nurses that pass in open pop pre pull as well... you'll find no med carts here though! (I work in a state prison) We have cabinets with bins that have the IMs name and DC# on them with their pt specific meds in there. We make little envelopes with their name, dc#, and the meds that they take and pull those just before med pass time. We can't pre pull for another shift or another person, we can only pre pull for ourselves. (I think that part is more of a policy though...) As far as the state regulations / guidelines for Florida, nurses can pull for confinement only. Check your state regs to see what they say about it.