What PRN meds do you give a lot?

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My floor gives an incredible amount of PRN meds. I'd never really seen some of these PRN orders in clinicals before. I'm wondering if I just missed this before, if it's because of the field I'm in, or if PRN use varies amongst facilities overall.

Obviously most specialities will see prn pain meds, tylenol, sleeping pills, and maybe some prn benadryl for itching, topical creams, or prn ativan for anxiety.

But what PRN meds do you see that are unique or unusual?

Some common ones we see are PRN orders to start IV antibiotics if the pt spikes a temp or a cx comes back positive, prn one time doses of antibiotics for a temp, prn growth factor shots for low ANCs, prn Lasix based on I&Os, prn hydralazine or lopressor, prn IV potassium, magnesium, calcium, or phosphorus, FFP for too high of an INR, prn baclofen for hiccups, and everyone has parameters for blood and platlet transfusion.

I've also seen caffiene pills and nicotine inhalers.

So what PRN orders do you see commonly where you work?

i give a crap load of dilaudid

Specializes in Med/Surg.

Lortab, Phenergan, Demerol. Med/Surg

Specializes in Hospice.

PRN one-time dose abx?????????????????

Have these folks never heard of resistance?

No wonder there's so many resistant bugs around!

What would be the rationale for that? From the rest of that post, it looks like a pretty acute, if not ICU, unit ... do y'all pan-culture, too, or just give the one dose of abx?

Specializes in LTC, Med/Surg/Peds.

work med/surg/peds...we give a lot of demerol/morphine & prn bp meds..as well as the usual tylenol/phenergan/zofran.

risperidone and ativan (Psych ICU unit) along with tylenol etc...

Specializes in Community, OB, Nursery.

Nubain, Benadryl, Reglan, Zofran (post c/section)

Dermoplast, orificeol, Colace, Senna, Dulcolax, Percocet (post vag or c/s)

Other PRNs are pitocin and/or cytotec for pp hemorrhage but thankfully we don't need that for everybody!!!

Specializes in cardiac.

Percocet, tylenol, potassium supp.

Cardiothor. surg stepdown.

Specializes in Day Surgery, Agency, Cath Lab, LTC/Psych.

Hydrocodone, Versed, Fentanyl, Morphine, Demerol, Zofran, Phenergan, Anzemet, Tylenol with Codeine, Darvocet are the main ones--I work in pre and post-op.

I find it unusual that you have that many antibiotics ordered PRN. I have never seen that before on any unit and I work agency so I have been around a bit.

Specializes in Acute Care, Rehab, Palliative.

Ativan and Seroquel

Specializes in Medical, Surgical.

Morphine, Dilaudid-thru the PCA, percocet, darvocet, zofran, phenergran, tylenol are the most common prns on my unit

Specializes in ICU, M/S,Nurse Supervisor, CNS.
PRN one-time dose abx?????????????????

Have these folks never heard of resistance?

No wonder there's so many resistant bugs around!

What would be the rationale for that? From the rest of that post, it looks like a pretty acute, if not ICU, unit ... do y'all pan-culture, too, or just give the one dose of abx?

I was thinking the exact same thing. I've never heard of prn abx.

Specializes in Day Surgery, Agency, Cath Lab, LTC/Psych.
I've never heard of prn abx.

Me neither. :no:

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