Signing the MAR

Most hospitals use barcode scanning now, so you do your checks, scan the medication and wrist band, then give the medication to the patient. The act of scanning digitally signs the MAR.

This hospital doesn't do it digitally.

I've worked in a few facilities where the policy was to sign the MAR immediately prior to administering the medication. So the real answer is that you follow whatever the policy is where you work.

With a paper MAR, I was always taught to sign after the administration of the med. Why? Because say you're about to give the med, and you've signed the MAR, but something happens and you don't actually give that med. Someone will come behind you and assume that patient had received the medication already because the MAR was signed.

We were taught that by signing the MAR, that was our way of saying, "Yes, I administered this medication to that patient". If the patient refused, or I needed to hold a medication, I would sign, circle, and then chart on the back of the page why the med was not given.