Knowledge of Medication and the 7 Rights

Know the Appropriate Dose

What you’re being taught at nursing school is that you have to read up about any one of those drugs and know what’s the appropriate dose, including both pediatric and geriatric . There’s lots of information out there and if it doesn’t fit that appropriate dose, don’t do it.

Know the Appropriate Routes

For some drugs, if you give it intravenously, it will be illegal if it’s not intended to be that way.  Some drugs given IM will not be absorbed whatsoever because it wasn’t intended to be given that way.

Know the Possible Side Effects

You must know this because if you see something strange happening to your patients, you’d know about it.

Know the Drug Class of the Medication

We’re going to learn this in depth through the course.  If a physician writes an order and if the use of medication is written, that’s great, but you always have to make sure the correct drug is ensured.  The ordering technique with a computer is a drop down screen.  The nurse may accidentally click on the one just below or above the intended one and this can lead to errors.  There’s 2 drugs that could be

• HydrALAzine
• hydrOXOzine

The first one is for blood pressure.  The second one is for nausea or allergies.  Interestingly they have similar dosage (like 25mg), so the doctor might think they picked the right drug but actually didn’t.  If they say they did it for blood pressure, we would know which would be the proper medication.  Since the front and back of the word are the same, these days, the differences are in upper case on the computer so the differences are more obvious.

Knowledge of Medication

If you don’t know what the medication is for.  Look it up in your hand book.  There is no excuse for this.

The Seven Rights

1. Right Patient
2. Right Drug
3. Right Route
4. Right Dose
5. Right Time
6. Right Documentation
7. Right To Refuse