Week 2 Blog #2

Week 2 January 11-17
Sunday, January 17, 2016 
2p-10p 8 Hours Interned

Today was a good day! Got to do the medication administration for the entire shift. There was a lot of double checks and comparisons to be done between the med carts medications and medication administration record (MAR). On the med cart there are little bins for each Sister that have rolls of pills in little packages for them. SLC receives the pill roll of medications for the entire week for each Sister. Each pill packet has certain medications in it with the date, name of medication, and the dosage. You then have to compare the information on this packets against the MAR to make sure it is the right med and then administer it during the allotted time frame to take it. It was a lot of double checking and back and forth. Certain medications could only be given as long as the Sister's pulse was above a certain range, blood pressure was in a certain range, systolic pressure above or below this range, diastolic pressure above or below that range, on an empty stomach, and so forth! Working as a CNA and watching the nurses administer the medications looked like a walk in the park! They just "popped pills" and handed them out! Didn't seem to difficult! But all these checks makes it very time consuming! I didn't realize all this! Obviously this is important because if the wrong med is given under abnormal circumstances, given to the wrong Sister and have an adverse reaction with another one of their meds, etc. this can be life threatening! So if there was a difference between the MAR and the pills in the packets (thank God there wasn't on my first med pass), we have to refer to a doctors order to triple check it! If we have the wrong medication compared to the doctor's order, we have to contact the pharmacy which delivers the medications (Grane pharmacy) and have them bring over a "stat" medication, fax over the doctor's order so they can check it, and have it changed! Its a lot of book work and checking! It's almost overwhelming! But everyone there has assured me that in time when I become more familiar with the medications and the Sister's, it will get easier. Just going to take practice! They were so nice! Any question I had they answered it and explained why. Didn't make it seem like I was inconveniencing them and was more that willing to help! Also, after researching insulin and how to administer it (that blog will be next week), I got the chance to do my first insulin injection! It was kind of scary, never poked anyone with a needle before, my hands were shaky drawing up the insulin, trying to remember the steps because there is a proper and sterile technique to it.... it was nerve wrecking! But got through it! The Sister told me she didn't even feel a thing! I don't know if she said that just because she was being nice and knew I was nervous, but it was very sweet of her :) It was a good day!