Administration of Medication

Course overview

It is widely acknowledged that medication errors result in thousands of adverse drug events and preventable reactions and deaths per year. All health care workers and other parties share in the responsibility for determining how medication errors occur and designing strategies to reduce errors. Some states in the U.S. allow unlicensed assistive personnel (UAP), such as nursing assistants, to help patients or residents with medication administration. Assisting is not giving medicines. Assisting is simply helping the person take his or her own medicines. The administration of a medication is the most common treatment used in health care. It can also be a common cause of harm. Administering drugs in a hospital has its advantages. Patients wear name bands and stay in their own beds. In this course, we will cover laws and rules of medication administration in the home, assisted living facility, and the hospital setting.