Your rights as a hospital patient:

These frequent errors can lead to negative consequences for the patients and those who love and care for them

• Misdiagnosis
• Medication Error
• Faulty Medical Devices
• Infection
• Failure To Account For Surgical Equipment
• Improper Medical Device Placement

WHAT ARE THE THREE CHECKS? Checking the: – Name of the person; – Strength and dosage; and – Frequency against the: Medical order; • MAR; AND • Medication container

• Right to Accessibility, availability and continuity of care
• Right to Dignity and Privacy of Patient
• Right to ensure Safety
• Right to Confidentiality of Information
• Right to Refusal of treatment
• Right to Information & education

The “rights” of medication administration include right patient, right drug, right time, right route, and right dose These rights are critical for nurses

To ensure safe medication preparation and administration, nurses are trained to practice the “7 rights” of medication administration: right patient, right drug, right dose, right time, right route, right reason and right documentation [12, 13]

As a general rule, medicines that are supposed to be taken on an empty stomach should be taken about an hour before a meal, or 2 hours after a meal Forgetting these instructions on rare occasions is unlikely to do any harm, but taking these medicines with food regularly may mean they don’t work

The label on the medication must be checked for name, dose, and route, and compared with the MAR at three different times: When the medication is taken out of the drawer

When you are giving some types of medications, it is necessary to wear gloves Change your gloves as soon as you have finished administering medications to the individual Never re-use gloves for more than one individual and always wash your hands again after you take off your gloves

Start with the basics

1. Verify any medication order and make sure it’s complete
2. Check the patient’s medical record for an allergy or contraindication to the prescribed medication
3. Prepare medications for one patient at a time
4. Educate patients about their medications
5. Follow the eight rights of medication administration

Rights of Medication Administration

1. Right patient Check the name on the order and the patient
2. Right medication Check the medication label
3. Right dose Check the order
4. Right route Again, check the order and appropriateness of the route ordered
5. Right time Check the frequency of the ordered medication
6. Right documentation
7. Right reason
8. Right response

The five Rs are: right drug, right route, right time, right dose and right patient This is just as relevant for doctors, both when prescribing and administering medication Two additions to the five Rs in use are right documentation and the right of a staff member, patient or carer to question the medication order

If in doubt or you have questions about your medication, ask your pharmacist or other healthcare provider Report suspected medication errors to MedWatch

They need to be given at specific times, such as every morning, to keep that amount of drug in your system Taking a dose too soon could lead to drug levels that are too high, and missing a dose or waiting too long between doses could lower the amount of drug in your body and keep it from working properly

Here are may help:

1. Take your medication at the same time every day
2. Tie taking your medications with a daily routine like brushing your teeth or getting ready for bed
3. Keep a “medicine calendar” with your pill bottles and note each time you take a dose
4. Use a pill container

Time-critical scheduled medications are those where early or delayed administration of maintenance doses of greater than 30 minutes before or after the scheduled dose may cause harm or result in substantial sub-optimal therapy or pharmacological effect

Try to divide up your dosing times as evenly as possible throughout the day: for example, every 12 hours for a drug that needs to be taken twice a day, or every 8 hours for a drug that needs to be taken three times a day

Whilst all medicines should be administered in a timely manner, there are some that must not be omitted or their administration delayed as this has the potential to cause harm These are referred to as ‘critical medicines’

Cardiovascular Drugs

• Anticoagulant drugs Warfarin As an oral anticoagulant used worldwide, warfarin is used to prevent and treat thromboembolic disorders in the ICU
• Antiplatelet drugs Clopidogrel
• Antiarrhythmic drugs Metoprolol
• Vasoactive drugs Vasopressin
• Statins Simvastatin

• Sedatives and induction agents 83
• Anticholinergics 84
• Opioid analgesics 85
• Anti-emetics 86
• Corticosteroids 87
• Anti-epileptics 88
• Anti-arrhythmics
• Anti-hypertensives 810

Emergency drugs (PICU Chart)

High risk medications are drugs that have a heightened risk of causing significant patient harm when they are used in error High risk medicines include medicines: with a low therapeutic index that present a high risk when administered by the wrong route or when other system errors occur

Abstract

• Adrenaline This is the first drug given in all causes of cardiac arrest and should be readily available in all clinical areas
• Amiodarone
• Lidocaine
• Atropine
• Additional drugs
• Calcium chloride
• Magnesium sulphate
• Miscellaneous drugs