sblackman

hello all. i was wondering if you all could provide me some input on how you administer medications in a correctional setting - preferably a jail, rather than a prison. here is a scenario: we operate a pill team at our facilities, whose job it is to administer unit doses to inmates and document the administration on the mar. we receive blister packs of patient-specific meds from our off-site pharmacy with the appropriate pharmacy label (rx#, name, drug, strength, dose, instructions, etc.). it is common practice for the nurse (rn or lpn) to pre-set or pre-pull a unit dose of the medication to be administered - sometimes 24 hours ahead of time. for example, at one of our facilities, the nurses pre-pull the medications from the blister packs and put the unit dose of the medication in an envelope (like a coin envelope) and labels the envelope with the patient's name, drug, dose and instructions. this envelope is then taken to the housing unit/pod for distribution to the patient. is this routinely and customarily done in other facilities? i would sure appreciate your comments and input. thanks.