Professional Paper Administering Medication And Treatment

Professional Paper
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One of the main roles of a nurse is to advocate for the health and the wellbeing of the patient by administering medication and treatment. The role requires the nurse to carry out a diagnosis of the patients' symptoms and come up with a conclusive report of their illness. This allows the patient to get the right medication and in turn, recover from the illness. The kind of treatment accorded to the patient plays an important role in enhancing their recovery from the illness. Given the current increase in the number of medication errors, the nurses have to pay attention to this role to ensure that they do not provide the wrong medication to their patients. The wrong medication could result in the worsening of the patient's condition or their death. Hence, in such a case, the nurse will not have advocated for the wellbeing of the patient by administering the right medication and treatment. As well, the nurse should ensure that all the medication given to the patient is clearly labeled and that the patient is in a position to understand the dosage as outlined in the labels. Taking the right doses is one of the key factors that help a patient to recover from an illness quickly. In addition, the nurse ensures to diagnose the patient carefully before offering any kind of medication. Cases have been reported whereby patients have been taking medication for the wrong illness due to the poor diagnosis process by the nurses (Bryant‐Lukosius, Spichiger, Martin, Stoll, Kellerhals, Fliedner & Schwendimann, 2016). Hence, to eradicate such cases, nurses have the role of ensuring that they correctly diagnose the patients and offer them the best medicine possible. In addition to this role, compassionate care is a necessity to promote the wellbeing of the patient. The nurse has a role of showing sympathy to the patient as they administer the medication in order to enhance the healing process. As well, the compassionate care in administering medication and treatment enables the patient to accept their condition and in turn, respond better to medication. Denial of illness could result in other mental disorders such as depressions and, therefore, it is the role of the nurse to ensure that they aid the patient in avoiding further health complications. Compassionate care also prepares the patient psychologically for major surgical procedures. The right and compassionate administering of treatment and medications fasten the healing process of a patient. Hence, the overall outcome is a healthy patient. The role requires nurses to administer medicine in thirty minutes before or after the specified time to enhance its effectiveness in the body.
In addition, not every nurse is allowed to administer medication to patients. Registered nurses are only allowed to administer medication under the supervision of a physician since they do not have the necessary education to perform that role. Advanced practice nurses have the necessary education to administer drugs to patients. However, their qualifications and prescriptive authorities vary from one state to another. In addition, various situations require nurses to administer medication without a direct order of a physician. For instance, in the case of an emergency, a nurse can provide life-saving medication to a patient with a direct order from the physicians. However, it always advisable for the nurse to try and get a prescription without administering the medication. This situation causes a dilemma as to whether the nurse should risk the life of a patient by not providing first aid medication or whether they should provide medication without a prescription. Some states have laws that protect the nurses from liability in the case whereby they provided first aid in good faith. In addition, various standing orders provide the nurses with an opportunity to provide medication without the prescription authority of a physician. The standing order dictates what the nurses should do in specific situations. Therefore, this kind of order does not require any specific certifications since the nurses gain experience on what to do in such situations. The standing orders change from one facility to the other, and therefore, a nurse has to learn all the standing orders of a new facility before applying them on a patient. However, in the case whereby the state law prohibits a nurse from administering certain immunizations, then they should consider with their risk manager before obeying a standing order that permits them to administer the medication. The state law requires the nurses to adhere to all the regulations of the Nurse Practice Act since the law supersedes hospital protocols (Cherry & Jacob, 2016). Generally, nurses are not licensed to offer medication but have a role in offering professional advice, which, in turn, creates the duty to treat. As a result, the nurse creates the role of administeri...