00:00
I'm Joanna, and we're going to talk about
medication administration.
00:05
Medication administration is extremely important.
Errors can result in a violation of the
patient's privacy, cause serious harm, or even death.
I'm going to give you a brief
overview about what we'll review today. Key terms,
medication safety, documentation, and
the nursing process. Here are some key terms
that you will see during medication
administration. If any of these look
unfamiliar to you, write them out,
look up the meaning, and practice saying them
out loud in front of a mirror or to your
friends. It's also really helpful if you
visualize yourself as the nurse
having these conversations to a patient.
In medication administration, it's the nurse's
responsibility to understand why the patient
needs the medication before
giving it. So give the medication as ordered,
unless you find an error, you should
notify the provider immediately. How the
medication works, instructions for the
patient, and common side effects. The nurse
should always perform three checks, that
is checking that is the right medication, the
right dose, and the right patient at
least three times before administering the medication.
Check if it's correct when
obtaining the vial, check if it's correct
before removing the vial, and check if
it's correct before actually giving the medication.
When you're performing the
three checks, you want to make sure you know
the six rights. I call them 6
Rights + Some. Depending on where you work,
your organization may add other rights.
01:43
So we'll review those too. The six rights
are the right medication, the
right dose, the right client, the right route,
the right time, and the right
documentation. Those other rights are right
education, right evaluation,
right assessment, the right to refuse, and
that the patient exhibits the right response.
02:10
Nurses should be cautious.
02:15
Medication errors can occur. Some common
causes of these errors are not washing
your hands. The nurse should wash their
hands before and then after medication
administration. Use gloves and sterile
technique if necessary.
02:32
Not documenting the medication can also
have serious consequences. So the nurse
that comes behind you,
if it wasn't documented, wasn't given.
Not assessing the patient before
administration. Many medications have
serious side effects, for instance,
respiratory depression. If you don't
assess the respiratory function before
administration, it can have some very
serious effects. An improper dosage
calculation and using look-a-like sound-a-like
drugs, these are all really
important to be cautious of when performing
medication administration.
03:10
Now, we'll talk about some dosing calculations.
This first one is the one you'll probably use the most
often. It is simply desire over availability
times the quantity. That is
the medication as its order divided by how you have
it available and times that by how much you
need. The next dosing calculation we'll review
is drip rates. You'll use these in a variety
of IV fluids and it's an important concept
to understand. You take the volume,
you times that by the drip factor, divide it
by the time you need to deliver it,
and that will be your drips per minute.
Let's practice that, 600
milliliters times a drip factor of 10
drops per minute. You divide that over
60 minutes or one hour, that equals
100 drops to be delivered in one
minute.
04:10
The next dosing calculation is if you need
to figure out the milligrams per
minute. This can easily be done by taking
the dose you need, times it by the drip
factor, and divide it by the solution
concentration.
04:25
Let's practice that one too. Three milligrams
times 30 drops per minute.
04:30
Divide that answer by six, and that will
equal 16 drops per minute.
04:39
Always double check your math before
administration and on a test. Some quick
tips for success, always assess, diagnose,
plan, and then implement.
04:51
Always use assessment before action. If two
answers feel correct, choose the one that
feels the most correct or the best answer.
And lastly, opposites attract.
05:03
If two answers are worded very similarly or at complete opposites,
the answer is usually in one of those. Good luck.