Say you had a colleague call you saying that they forgot to sign off that they gave medication to a patient before they left, and they ask you to initial that it was given so nobody gives it again. What do you do as a NICU Nurse in this situation?

"First, I would let my colleague know that I was not comfortable noting the dose administered in the patient's MAR. I would certainly thank them for calling and letting me know and I would assure them that I would notify the supervisor on duty right away. My first action after the call would be to make a quick written note on the PC in the patient's room to ensure another nurse won't administer any further medication in the meantime. I would then take the issue to the supervisor for the next steps to be determined."

In this real-life "what if" scenario, the correct thing to do is to write down the information about the dose and attach a sticky note to the unit in the patient's room so that there is a visual reminder for the person administering medications. This information should be reported to the shift nurse manager for additional guidance on how to manage the situation. Under no circumstances should you sign off on a medication that you did not administer.

"I understand things like this may happen from time to time, so first I would thank her for calling and let her know I would take care of the situation from there. I would then notify my supervisor and check with the patient to ensure they did actually receive the medication. If they did, my supervisor would likely handle covering the documentation part or I would see if they could approve me documenting the chart with a note that I was not the administering nurse. I would also confirm the count in the med cart to ensure it was accurate. If the patient said they did not receive the medication, I assume the supervisor would do additional investigating."