What can nurses do to prevent medication errors?

10 Strategies for Preventing Medication Errors

Ensure the five rights of medication administration.
Follow proper medication reconciliation procedures.
Double check—or even triple check—procedures.
Have the physician (or another nurse) read it back.
Consider using a name alert.
Place a zero in front of the decimal point.
Document everything.

What is the nurse’s role in medication administration?

Nurses are primarily involved in the administration of medications across settings. Nurses can also be involved in both the dispensing and preparation of medications (in a similar role to pharmacists), such as crushing pills and drawing up a measured amount for injections.

What is the nurse’s role in improving medication safety?

Nurses perform a critical role in preventing medication errors. This commentary explores system, human, and environmental factors that contribute to medication administration mistakes and near misses. The author recommends changes in nursing practice to reduce these elements that increase risks in care delivery.

What are the 5 basic principles for administering medication?

One of the recommendations to reduce medication errors and harm is to use the “five rights”: the right patient, the right drug, the right dose, the right route, and the right time.

What are the 5 R’s in nursing?

To ensure safe drug administration, nurses are encouraged to follow the five rights (‘R’s; patient, drug, route, time and dose) of medication administration to prevent errors in administration.

What are the 10 R’s of medication administration?

The 10 Rights of Drug Administration

Right Drug. The first right of drug administration is to check and verify if it’s the right name and form.
Right Patient.
Right Dose.
Right Route.
Right Time and Frequency.
Right Documentation.
Right History and Assessment.
Drug approach and Right to Refuse.

What are the five routes of administration?

Oral route. Many drugs can be administered orally as liquids, capsules, tablets, or chewable tablets.
Injection routes. Administration by injection (parenteral administration) includes the following routes:
Sublingual and buccal routes.
Rectal route.
Vaginal route.
Ocular route.
Otic route.
Nasal route.

What are the 6 R principles of administering medication?

something known as the ‘6 R’s’, which stands for right resident, right medicine, right route, right dose, right time, resident’s right to refuse.

What do the 6 Rs stand for?

6Rs: Rethink, Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Repair are all useful terms to explore reducing the impact of technology on people and the environment.

What are the 7 rights for medication administration?

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].