s-q insulin "doube check" question

[pattchez]

At my hospital nurses are expected to "double check" their sub-q insulin with another nurse before giving it to the patient. I am wanting to find out if anyone does not have to the "double check" at their hospital and it so how was that decided to change the practice? Do you know of any best practices or have policies which illustrate this? Was there any changes in medication errors when this change was made? I am interested in making this change at my hospital so I would appreciate any information you can share with me. Thanks!

[kimber1985]

I am a student, and in NICU at Broward General in Florida, they are double checking all meds in that unit. First I have seen. I believe it is a JCAHO thing.

[Varanasi]

The number responsiblity of being a RN is to keep our patients safe. We all know and hear regularly about medication errors. In my brief year and a half of nursing school I have already seen one incident where a patient was nearly killed from a medication error involving incorrect insulin dosing by a nurse in a Med-Surge setting.

I am also aware that in the hospital more often than not nurses are stretched for time and it seems perhaps the goal of eliminating that policy would be time related. Yet perhaps there are less crucial elements of patient care that can be eleminated.

[NicoleRN07, RN]

We double check insulin at our hospital, along with many other meds. Even it is not required of me to double check, if I have any doubts, I always double, sometimes triple check my calculations with other nurses.

[adrienurse, LPN]

I once heard a study quoted that double checking meds does nothing to reduce the frequency of errors that plain old 5 rights checking can't do. I'll try to find the sources

[adrienurse, LPN]

http://www.ismp.org/newsletters/acutecare/articles/20031030.asp

[Myxel67]

At my hospital nurses are expected to "double check" their sub-q insulin with another nurse before giving it to the patient. I am wanting to find out if anyone does not have to the "double check" at their hospital and it so how was that decided to change the practice? Do you know of any best practices or have policies which illustrate this? Was there any changes in medication errors when this change was made? I am interested in making this change at my hospital so I would appreciate any information you can share with me. Thanks!

Insulin is one of the meds that has high risk for error, Others that require double checking in our facility are: heparin, coumadin, potassium, opiates, and pediatric meds.

[sofaraway04]

Where I work we are not required to double check insulin doses, only controlled drugs require double checking. the only time as a student I've seen insulin double checked is when setting up a sliding scale infusion