Itswesley

I've been orienting at a LTC facility (my first nursing job) for about 3 weeks now. So far I'm loving what I do and have been with different nurses to see how exactly they do things. However, one issue I come across is the med pass. I'm still doing the med pass with another nurse watching, but every nurse I'm with tells me to do things that could result in a major problem. Meds are given super early. For example, if it's 0730 and a patient is getting something like insulin, the nurse will tell me to go ahead and "pull" their 9, 10, even 11 o'clock meds and administer them. However, they don't document giving them until they are actually due. So, when they get their 7am medications, they're also getting 9am, 10am, and even 11am medications, to "save time". Sure it saves time but at what cost? Then when 11:30 comes around and it's time for more insulin or something else, they'll tell me to go ahead and give 1 pm and 2 pm medications, just not document until the actual time. This makes me really nervous especially as a new grad. What happens if I do this and then can't remember if I gave a certain medication or not? If they have 15 meds and I can't remember if I gave them their meds and they start developing an issue that puts me in a horrible position. Or what if they need to be transferred to the ED and the computer says they haven't had any meds, when in fact they've had lots of them? One nurse suggested writing it down and checking it off but that's so tedious, I'd be so much more comfortable just giving them their meds when I'm supposed to (1 hour before and after the time). What should I do about this? I really don't want to make a med error and I'd much rather give the meds when they are due.