During a shift, a nurse is given a STAT order to perform a portable chest x-ray on a patient. What does this imply?

A. No identifiers are needed: Administering medication without verifying the client is unsafe and violates standard nursing practice. Omitting identifiers significantly increases the risk of medication errors and patient harm.

B. One identifier: Using only one identifier is insufficient to ensure accurate patient identification, as it may not reliably distinguish between clients with similar names or demographics. Safety standards require additional verification.

C. Two identifiers: Using two client identifiers—such as full name and date of birth, or medical record number—before medication administration is the standard of care. This practice reduces the risk of errors and ensures that medications are given to the correct client.

D. Three identifiers: While using three identifiers may add extra confirmation, current guidelines from The Joint Commission and most hospital policies recommend two identifiers as the required standard for safe medication administration.

A. 3/30/08: Fran Jones DOB 2/2/72 Demerol (meperidine) 50 mg IM for pain Dr. James Brown: The order does not specify a frequency or timing for administration, making it incomplete for safe nursing administration. “For pain” is vague and does not provide actionable guidance.

B. 3/30/08: Fran Jones DOB 2/2/72 morphine sulfate 4 mg IV stat Dr. James Brown: This order includes all necessary components for safe administration: client identifiers, date, drug, dose, route (IV), timing (stat), and prescriber signature. It provides clear, actionable instructions for the nurse.

C. 3/30/08: Fran Jones DOB 2/2/72 Keflex (cephalexin) 500 mg every 6 hours for 7 days Dr. James Brown: The order lacks a specified route of administration, which is required for safe medication administration. Without this, the nurse cannot accurately deliver the medication.

D. 3/30/08: Fran Jones DOB 2/2/72 Digoxin (Lanoxin) 0.5 mg orally every day Dr. James Brown: While most components are present, the order does not specify the exact time of day for administration, which is important for medications like digoxin with a narrow therapeutic index.