Perils of the drug round

摘要

If you ask a newly qualified nurse which is the task they worry about most, the majority would probably choose the drug round. The administration of medicines has always been a subject of concern and is considered one of the high-risk areas when it comes to making mistakes. Although there have been many attempts to reduce this risk, the problems on many wards continue and have arguably become worse. Some reasons for this are heavy workloads and the shortages in nursing staff. Although there is now only a requirement to have one registered nurse giving out the drugs, this has not improved the efficiency or speeded up the process of administration. In fact it would probably be much quicker, in some instances, to return to the situation where two nurses were involved: the registered nurse to check the prescription chart and a healthcare assistant to check with the nurse and to help administer the drug. This is especially helpful on medical wards and areas of care where there are a significantly high number of patients who have difficulty in taking their medications.