mlbirkner

The med bins of the meds we were actually giving were the only ones in the cart, except for OTC meds. The meds not in use were kept in locked cabinets in the med room. The reason I was concerned about the meds was because I worked on an Alzheimer's Unit and the you could actually see in the way the resident acted if they were given their meds routinely or not. So, yes I agree it's all about the residents when something as important as meds aren't being administered appropriately!

First-off, I would definitely pay the fee to keep your LPN license. Some long-term care facilities will let you test out of medication aide training if you feel comfortable knowing your meds. I think it would be a good idea to work part-time until you have your prereqs done. But once you start RN school I would only focus on that. Will they let you bridge over since you were an LPN, since you have completed your CEU's? I think that would be easier.

The LTC facility that I recently worked at had you punch out the pill that corresponded with the date and would have a separate card for each time slot (TID=3 cards; QID =4 cards, etc.). However, most of the nurses wouldn't follow the rules! They would punch out the meds wherever they deemed fit to punch them out, creating mass confusion! Even after numerous inservices. I'm halfway OCD so I memorized how many pills were left on the card when I was going to have a day off. Most of the time when I came back the same amount of pills were still on the card. Their excuse was they punch differently than me. It was such a problem I started writing how many pills were left on the card on the back of the card real tiny. Nothing never got done after it was reported! It was like a big waste of breath. So I just concentrated on the pills I punched out to make sure they were correct!