2. Administration of Medications
• Medication: substance administered for the diagnosis, cure,
treatment, or relief of a symptom or for prevention of disease
• Drug: same as medication – but also refers to illicitly obtained
substance
3.
4. Administration of Medications (cont’d)
• Prescription: The written direction for the preparation and
administration of a drug
• Generic name: name used throughout the drug’s lifetime
• Trade (brand) name: given by the drug manufacture and identifies it
as property of that company
• Pharmacology: study of the effect of drugs on living organisms
• Pharmacy: Prepares, makes, and dispenses drugs as ordered
5. Controlled Substances
• Kept under lock
• Special inventory forms
• Documentation requirements
• Counts of controlled substances
• Procedures for discarding
6. Effects of Drugs
• Therapeutic effect = desired effect
• Reason drug is prescribed
• Side effect = secondary effect
• Unintended, usually predictable
• May be harmless or harmful
• Adverse effect
• More severe side effect
• May justify the discontinuation of a drug
7. Effects of Drugs (cont'd)
• Drug toxicity
• Result from overdose, ingestion of external use drug, or buildup of drug in
blood
• Drug allergy
• Immunologic reaction to drug
• Mild to severe reactions (anaphylaxis)
• Drug interaction
• One drug alters the effect of one or both drugs
8.
9. Factors Affecting Medication Action
• Developmental(fetus, children, old age)
• Sex ( muscles, fat, hormone differences )
• Cultural
• Diet ( vitamin k and warfarin anticoagulant)
• Environment ( increase temp and vasodilators)
• Psychological ( patients and codeine)
• Illness and disease(aspirin and temp)
• Time of administration( before or after meal) stomach empty
10.
11. Types of Medication Orders
• Stat order
• Morphine Sulfate10 milligrams IV stat
• Single Order
• Seconal 100mg hs before surgery
• PRN order
• Amphojel 15 mL prn
12. Essential Parts of a Drug Order
• Full name of client
• Date and time the order is written
• Name of the drug to be administered
• Dosage of the drug
• Frequency of administration
• Route of administration
• Signature of the person writing the order
14. Parts of a Prescription
• Descriptive information about the client
• Date on which the prescription was written
• The Rx symbol, meaning “take thou”
• Medication name, dosage, and strength
• Route of administration
• Dispensing instructions for the pharmacist Directions for
administration to be given to the client
• Prescribers signature
22. Process of Administering Medications
• Identify the client
• Inform the client
• Administer the drug
• Provide adjunctive interventions as indicated
• Record the drug administered
• Evaluate the client’s response to the drug
24. Ten “Rights” of Accurate Medication
Administration
• Right medication
• Right dose
• Right time
• Right route
• Right client
• Right client education
• Right documentation
25. Ten “Rights” of Accurate Medication
Administration (cont'd)
• Right to refuse
• Right assessment
• Right evaluation
26. Physiological Changes Associated with Aging
• Altered memory
• Decreased visual acuity
• Decrease in renal function
• slower absorption from the gastrointestinal tract
• Decreased liver function
• Altered quality of organ responsiveness
• Decrease in manual dexterity
27. Administering Medications Safely
• The nurse should always assess a client’s health status and obtain a
medication history prior to giving any medication.
• The extent of the assessment depends on the client’s illness or
current condition, the intended drug, and the route of administration.
For example, if a client has dyspnea, the nurse assesses respirations
carefully before administering any medication that might affect
breathing.
• It is important to determine whether the route of administration is
suitable. For example, a client who is nauseated may not be able to
keep down a drug taken orally
28. Cont…
• An important part of the history is clients’ knowledge of their drug
allergies.
• included in the history are the client’s normal eating habits.
Sometimes the medication schedule needs to be coordinated with
mealtimes or the ingestion of foods.
• It is also important for the nurse to identify any problems the client
may have in self-administering a medication. A client with poor
eyesight, for example, may require special labels for the medication
container; clients with unsteady hands may not be able to hold a
tablet or syring.
29. Medication Administration Errors
• Nurses who do not follow mostly the five rights (right drug, right
client, right dose, right time, right route) of medication administration
contribute to medication errors.
• Common reasons why nurses do not follow the five rights include
poor pharmacologic knowledge, miscalculations, interruptions,
increased workloads, and fatigue.
• Technology, when used appropriately, can help decrease medication
administration errors. For example, some studies have shown that
barcode medication administration(BCMA) can reduce medication
errors by 54% to 87%
