Reply To: Ideas for organizing scheduled medications

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Thanks everyone for sharing your experience with medication management practices. We love that you help support one another as we navigate the administration of large volumes of medications at camp. If Ok, I would like to share some key points that help with safety considerations and also remind us of the legal requirements for medication distribution. I am going to talk in general safety terms, but please know you need to understand if your state has limitations on medication practices and adhere to those practices.

1. In situations where nurses are “repackaging” medications from the original container to another system (bags, cups), you are required (in most all states) to be labeling the new package with the 5 rights (patient name, drug name, dose, route, time). This can become a gray area quickly so we need to be sure that we are providing all the information from the original prescription on the new package. If we only put the camper name and time, we are creating risk for everyone and the potential for medication error.
2. When repackaging, it is the expectation typically that the person who repackaged the medication is the person dispensing the medication. This means that one nurse should not be repackaging all the medications for the week on day one and having others administer. The nurse who is administering is responsible to know what each medication is, the adverse effects, and contraindications. If there are 4 pills repackaged in a cup, the one administering those medications should be able identify each pill in the cup for safety reasons. Back to nursing 101!
3. Pill planners are not ideal practice for the same reasons mentioned above. We should not ideally be pre-packaging for the full week and it is near impossible to have all the necessary information on a small pill planner. If camps want to repackage medications (and it is allowed in your state) it most safely done on a daily basis – only repackaging for a 24 hour period. This prevents situations like night meds getting confused with morning meds and someone receiving the incorrect medication.

We all understand the need to streamline the medication administration process and I applaud the creative thinking that we are able to do as nursing professionals. Please remember to know your state regulations – in some states only pharmacists can re-package. I think many camps, if for no other reason than large numbers of campers, do re-package. Our desire is that we do it safely and effectively and ACH is glad to assist you with this process.

There will be our traditional Medication Management Webinar on May 10, 2024 – Free for All! Register at: https://allianceforcamphealth.org/conferences-and-events/
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Best for Summer 2024