Ways of taking medicine

ž The ordering of the medicine in the department is done by the chief nurse according to the information provided by the ward nurses. They daily write down from the patient’s history into a special notebook or on separate for each patient pages the prescriptions assigned by the doctor and give the chief nurse the complete list of all prescribed medicines. She then accumulates the data and fill in the request form (form 1-77) to get the medicines from the drug-store.

ž In the requests for highly deficit or expensive medicines she notes the number of the patient’s history, his surname, name, father’s name and the diagnosis. Ready-made medical substances are available at the same day, and the medicines that require time to be made can be taken by the chief nurse on the next day. The medicines are given to the chief nurse only in their original production packaging.

ž Medical substances that belong to groups A and B are kept separately in special cupboards (safes). On the inner surface of the safe door there must be a list of group A medicines (narcotics, analgetics, atropine, etc.) and group B medicines (soporific, codeine, platyphyllin, etc.) with notes on maximum instantaneous and daily doses.

ž The stock of narcotic medicine must not exceed the amount which is required for 5 days of use. The stock of drastic medicines must not exceed the 10-day amount. Medicines that contain narcotic substances are to be named, counted and written down in a special enumerated journal with a seal.

ž In the patients history the doctormakes necessary notes about the prescription of the narcotic analgetic, puts the date and time when the medicine was given to the patient, below the notes the doctor and the medical nurse put their signatures. Empty and unused ampules with narcotic medicines together with the journal and the keys from the safe are given to the nurse who takes the duty. In the morning empty ampules are given to the chief nurse of the department.

ž All sterile solutions in ampules and vials (vials that are made in the drug-store have a blue label). Sterile solutions for injectionswhich are sealed with the bindingtape are kept no longer than for two days.

ž Medicines forinternal and external use are kept at the nurse post (station) in the cupboard on separate shelves which are marked “For internal use” and “For external use” accordingly. Medical substances for external use that were made in the drug-store are marked with the yellow label, for internal – the white one.

ž Remember! It is forbidden to keep medicines without any labels as well as to replace or rewrite the labels.

Remember! Changes in colour, appearance of flakes, films, change of odour shows that the medicine is no longer in proper condition to be used.

ž At her post the medical nurse groups the medicines inside the cupboard: one group is for medicines that decrease blood arterial pressure – hypotensive (clonidine, dibazole,reserpine, etc.), another one -diuretic (furosemide, hydrochlorothiazide, etc.), and he third one – antibiotics (erythromycin, olitetrin, etc.). This kind of grouping of medicines helps the night shift medical nurse to quickly find the necessary medicine.