Published
Welcome to my world! In school nursing we are faced with stuff like this all the time. Field trips, times we are out sick and there is no nurse available, parents sending meds to school in baggies. It is tough to find a line between being reasonable and being legal. And believe me, no one understands how important your license is except you and your fellow nurses. Stick to your guns!
Yes, that is considered dispensing. We are not allowed to do this at my facility.
What we can do is have the person or whomever will be responsible for them sign out the entire card of meds. We can provide instructions regarding how many and what time they are to be taken. We just can't pop them and give them out in an envelope for LOA. Nurses in my facility have gotten in big trouble for doing this, even for something seemingly as silly as providing an alert and oriented patient their lunchtime zantac.
celticwoman61
44 Posts
you are a nurse in a facility with clients that live on site (nursing home, correctional etc.) and they receive prescription medications that nurses administer. the client will be going on a home leave or off grounds and require that their meds go with them.
if you remove meds from the original labeled container, place them into another container (let's say a med envelope), re-label it with their name, med name, directions etc. and and give it to the client or family member; is this not considered dispensing?
as nurses are we not out of the scope of our license to dispense?
please help me clarify this....
thanks!