Educating staff about new drugs
Accreditation Connection, September 19, 2005
A monthly training session may be a good way to educate nursing staff about new drugs added to the formulary, but if drugs are added between those sessions and nurses have questions, they would have to wait until the next month to get answers.
Meadowlands Hospital Medical Center in Secaucus, NJ, devised a creative solution to that problem.
If a physician orders a medication that is new to the formulary, pharmacists attach a 3-in.-by-5-in. card with bulleted information points about the medication, says Wren Lester, the hospital's corporate director of performance improvement.
The bright orange cards outline basic information about the drug, as well as any potential side effects, which helps nurses when monitoring a patient's reaction to a new medication, Lester says.
"If a patient reacts to the medication, the nurses don't know if the reaction is expected or not," Lester says.
Adapted from the September issue of Hospital Pharmacy Regulation Report.
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