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It's really not a big deal. At my facility, inventory of the controlled meds in pyxis is done at the beginning of the week; night shift does it on the floors after midnight Monday morning & outpt units do it first thing Monday mornings when they arrive. Of course, a count is also done each time a controlled med is taken out to administer as well.
On the home screen, there should be an inventory icon, but you need to have somebody walk you thru it again & show you. There can be minor variations between pyxis at different places. One RN logs in & a second RN will be prompted to log in before the count.
Maybe find out when inventory is routinely done to see if you can do it a few times. It may be done on a completely opposite shift from you & will not be something you ever do or really need to know.
Pharmacy staff is not immune to the issues surrounding narcotic-handling. Ideally, in recognition of this and for everyone's protection, nursing and pharmacy complete the inventories together, or at least alternate the responsibility for such.
OP, I would see no reason why you can't ask a trusted co-worker, "would you remind me how to do the inventory - I haven't had to do it regularly." Seriously not a big deal.
We do narcotic inventory, but two people have to sign in and do it together... I just let the senior person take the lead for a while until I learned the station better.
Our works this way:
1. I sign in.
2. button on touch screen says inventory...click it
3. click controlled only
4. next persona has to sign in and viola your counting.
everlearning2016
2 Posts
Can anyone tell me how to do a pyxis inventory? I'm a fairly new nurse and don't know how to do an inventory of the pyxis. I was shown when I first started during my orientation phase and have never done it since then. I think I've been there long enough to know this but honestly, I'm ashamed to let my counterparts know that this simple task is something I don't have a handle on.