When I medicate a patient

 From the very beginning of nursing school I can remember how much importance was placed on learning how to perform medication calculations & researching the medication of our patients the night before our clinical rotation days, This was to ensure we knew everything about the medications the patient was taking, including the side-effects, possible adverse effects, allergic reactions etc, and you better know if your patient had any allergies to it or contraindications 🧐 because the instructor was probably going to ask you in the morning & you didn't want to look like a fool. I was one of those students that was Not gonna be caught off guard & worse yet Not be able to answer the patients questions about the medicine, to me that was unacceptable, so I took it very seriously & carried that with me into my career.

As an ER nurse there were many times when a patient would ask me why is the doctor giving me this med? I would explain in detail because I felt patients have the right to know exactly what they are getting & why & decide if they want it. Of course I would make the case for it if it was necessary to help them choose wisely, but I never pressured anyone to take something they didn’t want. I also discussed side effects known & possible unknown as listed in literature, as is my duty, that's what’s called informed consent, I never gave something without explaining it first, of course unless the patient was unconscious, drunk, or a violent psych pt we had to take down & we were restraining them or we were saving them in a code blue etc. If a patient decided against it, I explained the results of that decision based on their condition at the time also, that’s how nursing works, ultimately it’s the patient’s decision. On a few occasions the doctor would have a patient sign a form called AMA against medical advice, if a patient decided against a medication that the Dr felt they needed to save them & they might die without it & the pt decided to leave, they would be asked to sign this form that states the exact risks of not following the medical advice, but that happened about a handful or so times in my career.

My goal was always to educate my patients as well as care for them, I tried to empower them also by teaching them about their conditions & what questions to ask their doctors when they go to regular appts, in hopes that they would follow up, they usually just came back to the ER but I tried. 😁 As a nurse one main goal is to do no harm to our patients, just like doctors, so I personally would never give anything I didn’t research & explain risks & benefits of to My patients. I wonder if nurses of today can say that? I am glad I became disabled due to a heart condition & retired in 2019 because I would have never given what I’ve researched to people, just my opinion, I’d quit first.