Precautions and Med Administration

Hi, I'm a student and I had a question for all you professionals...

I'm having a hard time figuring out what to do about the third check of Med Administration when the patient is on precautions greater than standard. Should you bring an MAR into the room of a patient on precautions? I would think you would not...but then, how do you do the third check?

Any advice is much appreciated!!

Thank you!! :thankya:

Do it outside the room then slap a patient label sticker on the syringe/med cup to compare against the patient's name band.

Hi, I'm a student and I had a question for all you professionals...

I'm having a hard time figuring out what to do about the third check of Med Administration when the patient is on precautions greater than standard. Should you bring an MAR into the room of a patient on precautions? I would think you would not...but then, how do you do the third check?

Any advice is much appreciated!!

Thank you!! :thankya:

This is what I do:

I bring a copy of the MAR page with the patient's identifying information into the room. After I do my checks, I cover up the patient's information with Identi-hide stickers (opaque, super sticky covers that my hospital uses to cover sensitive materials destined for disposal). I then throw away the page inside the patient's room, go back to the station and document my meds on the computer ASAP.

If you need to make notes about particular issues that arose as you gave meds such as patient refused X, Y, Z meds but took A, B, C meds, make a quick note of that on a piece of paper or paper towel and stick it near the patient's door. That way, you can come out, de-gown and then rewrite the notes on a clean pen and paper. It drives me bonkers when people use their pens and notebooks inside isolation rooms without regard for the fact that, hello!, germs are gonna hitch a ride.

In an ideal world, we should be able to document our meds as we give them but for now this is what my current situation allows. In the future, we have plans to document medications via barcode scanning at the bedside and to have computers installed in every room.

Thank you, that helps a LOT. Do you copy the MAR page with a photocopier, or just copy it onto a sheet of paper and have someone verify you got everything? I've never seen Ident-i-hide, but I'll look for it. Perhaps one could simply leave a pen in the patient's room (as long as they were safe to have a pen).

We are on electronic mars. If there isn't a computer in the pts room, to bring the mar in you have to wheel in the cart. I usually park it in the doorway to the room to minimize "exposure" then wipe it down afterward. The third "check" is scanning the med, so you have to have the computer to check the med against the mar.