9AM–11AM: Med Administration and Staying Ahead of Your Shift (Nursing)

00:00 Now that we've talked through all of that guys, we talked a little bit about medication administration and about 0900 or 9 o'clock meds, like we've discussed earlier is the most common time for morning medications.

00:13 So it's important that you review all your orders beforehand, and any may be pertinent lab values to that medications before you go give them.

00:22 Now just note, some meds have to be given before meals, sometimes it's after meals.

00:28 A great example of that is insulin for a diabetic.

00:32 Now insulin has to be time to a certain time before a patient's meal or maybe they're on thyroid medication or GI medication.

00:41 So we have to use all this in planning out our day.

00:46 So, we've talked about a lot.

00:49 It's important to stay ahead of it all.

00:52 So here's just a few tips of doing this, and probably about early mid- morning here about 10 o'clock.

00:58 Once we've assessed our patient, or excuse me, we've done bedside report, we've fully assessed our patients, we've passed our morning meds, for example, here are some things to think about, about that mid-morning swing to figure out how we stay on top of it.

01:14 So if a patient has a procedure, make sure you go ahead and early prepare your patient. Early, because you never know when they're going to call for either surgery or a test for your patient.

01:24 Also, if you have a little bit of time, and the patient you know is going home today, you know that you can start a little bit early on that paperwork and have it ready when the patient's ready to go and the doctor says it's okay to do so.

01:37 Also, many times in the middle of our day, the physicians going to round and we usually need to be involved in that plan.

01:45 So we need to be ready to participate that if the physician comes and sees the patient, we can snag the physician meaning say, "Hey, I need you to see Miss Jones in 56, I want to talk to you about this", or they may want you to round to help them with a treatment for the patient.

02:02 And lastly, very important, physical therapy, occupational therapy, other additional therapies are going to be working with your patient for a better patient experience and better health.

02:13 We need to coordinate very well with them because sometimes we need to move our treatments around these therapies.

02:21 Let's take a moment and ask ourselves a really important question of shift organization.

02:27 When should you complete your charting? Well, believe it or not, guys, when you do an intervention, it's best to do it right there at the bedside or as soon as the intervention is done.

02:38 Many times we have bedside charting computers in that patient's room.

02:42 So after the intervention, move to the computer in the same room and document, that's going to save a lot of time.

02:49 I will tell you as a new nurse, it's a very easy habit to get into just a wait till the end of your shift is a bad idea guys.

02:57 There's many important details that you may miss if you wait all the way till the end.

03:02 So make sure once you do an intervention, get to a computer and document as soon as possible.