SBAR Medication Order

[Newgurl17, CNA, LPN]

Hey everyone,

So I have been working as an LPN for 6 months now in a long term care facility. I had a resident who was on trial for pediatrix liquid 7.86 ml q8h prn x1week, or whatever the dose was, can't remember off by heart and I work at this facility prn.

Anyway, it came time to re-assess this resident's pain, and the prn pediatrix medication seemed to be working for this resident, so we had to SBAR the doctor the results of this resident taking the medication.

I informed the doctor on the SBAR that the resident was taking the ordered medication and was basically doing fine with it and requested a regular order for the medication, my co-lpn who works full time at the facility told me to request a regular order. In response, the doctor basically kept the prn order:"continue pediatrix liquid 7.86ml q8h prn).

So I gave the doctor the medication, dose, frequency (pediatrix liquid 7.86ml q8h prn) in the "s" section of the SBAR and asked, "can we please get a regular order for the above medication?" in the "R" section of the SBAR. I think the nurses were giving the medication not on an as needed basis but regularly.

Did I not use the right words on the SBAR or did the doctor misinterpret my request?? How would you have interpreted my request? What order would the doctor have written?

feeling dumb....

[Julius Seizure]

I don't really see anything exactly wrong with what you said to the doctor. I think the doctor probably understood fine. He or she just didn't decide to order what you had requested, that's all. The doctor chose to keep the order PRN.

Pediatrix is a brand of acetaminophen, is that correct? If so, without further details on the situation, I would probably agree with the doctor leaving it PRN. If it gets written as a regular order, the patient might receive it when they don't need it. Acetaminophen is not a risk-free medication and shouldn't be given unless the patient actually needs it.