Series Overview:

FDA studies show that medication errors injure about 1.3 million people in the United States each year and cause the death of 7,000. Safe medication administration is essential to nursing practice, and nurses need to have knowledge and skill in the techniques of administering all pharmaceutical agents because the nurse is the last line of defense to protect a patient against a medication error.

This 3-part basic skills series demonstrates and describes the safe administration of oral, topical, suppository, inhalant and injectable medications.

The programs in this series are:

• Administering Medications: Medication Safety and Oral Medications
• Administering Medications: Topical, Suppository and Inhalant Medications
• Administering Medications: Injections

Overview:

This first program will describe the safe administration of oral medications and will demonstrate practices that are required in order to help prevent medication errors.

Objectives:

After completing this course, the learner should be able to:

• Describe the scope of medication errors
• List the "5 Rights of Medication Administration"
• List additional safety practices often considered to be medication rights.
• Describe safe medication administration practices that are part of the Joint Commission's National Patient Safety Goals