They call us constantly, sometimes about things that are legitimate and sometimes not so much. I think everyone I know has lost their temper at a pharmacist at least once.
Anyway, we play game where every time we get called by the pharmacist about an order to try to make other people guess what the problem with the order was. See how you fare at this game:
You didn't specify on the skin.
ReplyDelete14mg vs. 17mg vs. 19mg
ReplyDeleteyou didn't say to remove the old patch before putting on the new one
ReplyDeleteMissing route. I'm assuming you dated, timed and signed the order.
ReplyDeleteThose crazy nurses may make the patient roll and smoke the patch unless you state the route. lol
Don't forget the nurses that would have the patient eat the patch... or the ones that would wallpaper the patient with patches if they didn't have instructions to take the old one off.
ReplyDeleteNeed a route- A requirement per Joint Commission and per hospital policy (and in some states, state law).
ReplyDeleteJust because you don't know/like the rules, doesn't mean you don't have to follow them.
-
Agreed. Their butts are on the line, too.
DeleteHow many patches daily?
ReplyDeleteSince you didn't specify that the patch has to go on the skin, I'm gonna go ahead and assume you wanted it in their ear. Thank god for pharmacy clarification...
ReplyDeleteAs a pharmacist I wouldn't have called on this order
ReplyDeleteper 24 hours.
ReplyDeleteAgree, no route.
ReplyDeleteWe get this all the time at my new hospital. One pharmacist in particular is a repeat offender. She once delayed prepping RSI meds on an altered and combative head trauma patient to suggest we try Zyprexa instead.
14mg patch per day
ReplyDeleteIt is not save the guessing game if played by the pharmacist.
Nicotine - not Nicatrol or the name of a patch, just nicotine. Put me down for the 20 mg variety. TCG
ReplyDeleteThe comments about application are appropriate, I admit. Back in the old, old days when nitroglycerine paste first came out, we had a rash of sudden-onset pounding headaches among the CCU nurses. Someone finally figured out that we were applying the paste with bare fingers! Soon after, the company came out with applicators and then those handy paper strips to measure and apply and the headaches disappeared. TCG
ReplyDeleteYes, the problem was the missing route. Someone could administer the nicotine patch rectally!
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteAs a pharmacist, you'd be surprised (well, probably not) what some nurses try to do. I used to think that calling on something like this would be dumb . . . not since I've been working for a while. I probably would have just entered it for the proper route and not called, but legally, I probably should call.
ReplyDeleteEvery rule is there because someone was dumb enough to do something that proved the rule was needed. I never used to believe that.
I actually just had something like this with a lidocaine patch. The nurses were applying to the patient's arm, the sig said "affected area." The patient actually had pain in his back. One of them came to pick up a patch and mentioned the patient said it wasn't working for his pain...they didn't even bother to read the sig. They were applying it like a nicotine patch.