Question about TID meds

[MombearNurse]

A nurse I work with is insisting that pain medication, or any medication prescribed as TID should be given exactly 8 hours apart. Is this how TID should be interpreted? We have 8 hr shifts at our facility. The med in question is currently scheduled at 8, 14, 20. The patient also has a medication for break thru pain as a prn.

[klone, MSN, RN]

If it is q8h it would be written as q8h. TID is not the same as q8h. TID is typically given as equally throughout the time patient is awake. 0800, 1400, and 2000 sounds totally appropriate.

[wanderlustnurse88, RN]

That's what our TID schedule is. Our pharmacy sets the time, not the nurses.

[Guest219794]

If you think about it, that's kind of goofy.

By that reasoning, nobody ordered TID PO meds will ever sleep even 8 hours, let alone more.

Does she wake people up to give them pain medication?

[MrChicagoRN, RN]

Everywhere I've worked, TID is 9-1-5, or 9-1-6 per pharmacy policy.

if it's to be further spaced out, it could be BID & HS (9-5-9), 9-1-9, Q8 (6-2-10 or 8-4-12mn)

[dudette10, MSN, RN]

The many different ways of spacing medications is sometimes problematic when working in a teaching hospital. Thank goodness our PharmDs are on the ball, but one sometimes slips past, and the nurse has to clarify based on his/her knowledge of the reason and usual timing for the med.

[floridanurse1983]

In my hospital it's set by the computer and pharmacy. But when I worked in a nursing home, Dr's just ordered and nurses scheduled based on medication. Antibiotics ordered 2 times a day were totally different than colace twice a day.

[TheCommuter, BSN, RN]

At my workplace, the arbitrary TID times are 0800/1400/2000 and 0700/1400/2100.

Q 8hours means every 8 hours. TID means three times daily. The two are totally different and your coworker needs to come to this realization.