The Association of periOperative Registered Nurses has released a new recommended practice for medication safety, according to an AORN news release (pdf).
Key recommendations in the RP include the following:
- Discontinuing use of multidose vials.
- Taking a multidisciplinary team approach that includes pharmacist involvement in the perioperative medication management process.
- Developing systems to evaluate compliance with safe practices at each step in the medication use process.
- Assessing patients before and after administering medication.
- Using aseptic technique when transferring medications to the sterile field and during incremental injections.
"This medication safety RP expands the description of medication safety by looking at broader risk points in the 'life' of a medication from the point of storage through to the point of disposal of the medication after it has been given," said Bonnie Denholm, MS, BSN, RN, CNOR, AORN perioperative nursing specialist and lead author of the RP, in the release.
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The RP is available in the association's 2012 edition of Perioperative Standards and Recommended Practices. Also new in this edition are recommended practices for the prevention of deep vein thrombosis and perioperative healthcare information management.
To learn more about the 2012 edition of Perioperative Standards and Recommended Practices, visit www.aorn.org.
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