Safety in Medication Administration

Medication administration is a multifaceted process which involves the application of a prescribed medication to a patient. As the licensed practical nurse, or LPN, or licensed vocational nurse, or LVN, you are responsible for administering certain medications, which requires the use of critical thinking and clinical judgment to promote patient safety and avoid medication errors, or preventable events that lead to inappropriate medication use or patient harm. Although numerous protocols exist to promote safe medication administration, as the nurse, you are the patient’s last line of defense against medication errors.

To safely administer medications, you must be familiar with measurement systems, approved medical abbreviations, and methods of dosage calculation. First, measurement systems used to prescribe medications include the metric system, which uses grams, liters, and meters to calculate doses, and is preferred for medication prescription. The household system uses drops, teaspoons, tablespoons, and cups to measure doses, and although it’s familiar to patients, it tends to be inaccurate.

Okay, so most facilities have a list of medical abbreviations that shouldn’t be used in order to decrease the risk of medication errors. For example, some facilities state that health care providers shouldn’t use the letter “u” to denote units since it can be mistaken for the number 0.

Next, nurses must be competent in dosage calculation. Although there are various methods of dosage calculation, dimensional analysis is the preferred method.

Now, the standard practice for medication administration is to use the rights of safe medication administration because they are shown to reduce medication errors. These principles include: the right medication, right dose, right time, right route, right patient, and right documentation. These rights must be confirmed at least three times prior to administering a medication to a patient. The first check happens when collecting the medication, the second check occurs during medication preparation, and the third check occurs immediately prior to administering the medication.