Case Study: Look- and Sound-Alike Medications Exam

A nurse is preparing to administer a new prescription for buspirone to a client. The client asks the nurse if this is the medication she requested to help her stop smoking. Which of the following responses should the nurse make?

"Let me check with your provider and make sure this is the medication he wants you to take." There are many medications that either look-alike or sound-alike, and it is the nurse's responsibility to know the differences. The nurse should not administer any medication that a client is questioning in order to prevent a potential medication error. The nurse should stop and verify if this is the right medication and the right client.

A nurse is reviewing the medication prescriptions in a client's medical record. The dosage for one of the medications is not legible. Which of the following actions should the nurse take to clarify the prescription?

Contact the prescriber to clarify the dosage information. It is the nurse's responsibility to safely administer the client's medications. To prevent a medication error, the nurse should not attempt to interpret an illegible prescription. The nurse should contact the provider who wrote the prescription to clarify the dosage.

A nurse is asked by a coworker to administer a client's dose of meperidine IM so she can attend to another client's needs. The coworker hands the nurse a syringe and tells him that she has already prepared the medication.Which of the following actions should the nurse take?

Offer to attend to the second client so the coworker can administer the medication. The nurse should not administer a medication he did not prepare. By offering to attend to the second client, the coworker who prepared the medication can administer it to the first client.

A nurse is preparing to administer furosemide 80 mg PO to a client who has edema. The nurse performs medication calculations with the provided solution of 10mg/mL and determines the client should receive 18mL of furosemide. The pharmacy provided a unit dose of a 10 mL container. Which of the following actions should the nurse take?

Recalculate the medication dosage for verification. It is the nurse's responsibility to follow the rights of medication administration, which includes double checking any medication calculations that appear to be questionable. The nurse should identify that not only does it appear that the pharmacy has not sent enough medication for the client, but also that the calculated dose of 18 mL is questionable. The nurse should recalculate the dose to verify the amount to administer is 8 mL.

A nurse is preparing to administer a medication to a client and notices that the expiration date for the medication was two days ago. Which of the following actions should the nurse take?

Return the expired medication to the pharmacy. The nurse should consider a medication that is expired to be unsafe to administer. Therefore, the nurse should contact the pharmacy to request a replacement medication and should return the expired medication to the pharmacy.