Virginia Regulatory Town Hall
 
Agency
Department of Health Professions
 
Board
Board of Pharmacy
 
chapter
Regulations Governing the Practice of Pharmacy [18 VAC 110 ‑ 20]
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4/14/09  9:30 am
Commenter: Jennifer Gaines, RN Martha Jefferson Hospital

Nurse signature for narcotic
 

I am for the petition is to allow Pharmacy to restock an AcuDose with narcotics WITHOUT a nurse having to sign for them.  This practice is pulling nurses away form patient care for a poor quality measure. The practice shows little, i.e., what is the nurse truly signing?It simply shows that those narcotics numbers were present, but it does not verify the placement of them in the acudose. From a narcotic control perspective this shows nothing. 

The count is independently and blindly verified for each and every entry for narcotics into the acudose, any discrepency is addressed with a miscount. If the narcotics were not placed in correct number by pharmacy, that would be addressed at the very next entry into that medication. The computer log would display who and what count was completed when.

The process of narcotic counts is important, but the current nurse signature effort doea not validate a correct count and is using valuable time for nurses...that could be spent in patient care.

CommentID: 6956