Verifying medications

[loveishope]

I work at a hospital where you enter all medication orders in the computer. After you enter the order in the computer, you have to verify the medication before it will appear on the emar. A nurse entered an order but failed to verify the medication. The night nurse did not give the medication because it was not on the emar. When she did her chart checks she found the order and noticed it had not been verified. She did not verify the order because she was uncomfortable about verifying a medication she did take an order for. She was told by her manager that she should have verified the order because " when you verify an order you are just verifying that you saw the order." actually, this response was written in a letter to her. Tell me if I'm mistaken, but when you verify a medication, you are in fact verifying that it is the right drug, right order, right dose, right patient, right route, and right time. You are doing a little more than just verifying you saw it.

[jimthorp]

Some places still use paper......

ps. (I mean that tongue in cheek;))

As hard as it is to believe, yes.

[netglow, ASN, RN]

I guess that's the problem, you have to figure out what that means in your EMR.

I think, though it's more like Night Owl RN states. Verify means you've seen it, know it's there. Like new orders. Doesn't matter that you might not give the med during your shift. If UPS sends a package of important stuff, it will require a signature that it has been delivered to an actual person.

[MomRN0913]

Some places still use paper......

ps. (I mean that tongue in cheek;))

a lot of places do. Atleast docs are still writing orders, even if everything else is computerized.

Anyways, it shouldn't be any different than writing orders. we have 24 hour chart checks in place to ensure no orders were missed. So, when it was caught, i think it should have been carried out. even if the nurse was there to verify the order with her, it's T.O order...... she verified her end, now you have nothing else to go off of what she verified anyways.

[vokaybo]

With CPOE the Pharmacy should be verifying the orders after the physician/midlevel puts them in. A nurse should only have to acknowledge that an order is in the que for her/him to carry out. If it is a written order, it should still be verified by pharmacy to ensure the rights of medication administration.