When did you start to trust your memory with trade/geneic drugs??

[newtelenurse]

I have been working bedside nursing in a rural hospital for about 7 mos. We still have handwritten MAR's. I "KNOW" that tenormin and atenolol are the same thing. Yet I find it hard not to dig out the drug book..or we have handy little drug cards from the pharmacy for about 80% of the drugs, just to be sure. As you can imagine I could do a med pass much quicker if I didn't look everything up. My fear is that I will "know" that Imdur is amiodarone give it and be wrong. We have a med cart with individual drawers for each pt. All the evening and 9 am drugs are in it, so it is possible for error. We do not have the pixel?? system that the bigger hospitals have. And the only scanning that gets done for pt. care is for an accu-check. Any tips for increasing my confidence would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance, as I do not get on here often.

newtelenurse

[KatieBell]

It is always good to look up stuff. i still have a lot of trouble with certain medications that I give rarely... In addition, I worked overseas where all the brand names are different and so now I just ask what is the generic name of that, it can get to be very confusing.

Still, It can be rather a pain each day to be looking up the same stuff.

I am sure the tele unit is quite busy, but one way that might speed things up for you is to take your MAR's once you have finished your assessment, and look it up all at once and make a note on the MAR (since it is handwritten anyway), of the other name. (We have a handwritten MAR in an obs area in my ED and we are required to write either the generic, or the brand and generic, but never just the brand name...). It could take some time, but your med pass would be faster if you are not looking them up one by one.

Barring that, you might just make yourself a handy card with just the names of the drugs written on it. you don't need the info because it sounds as if the pharmacy has a good resource for you.

Best Wishes!!!

[unknown99, BSN, RN]

I have been a nurse for more than 20 years and I still have a hard time with this. Oh, there are the basic ones that are easy to remember such as Lasix/Furosemide, Demerol/ Meperidine, etc... But for most, I still have to look it up, just to be safe.