Posted: February 26th, 2018

Nurse on the evening shift finds an unlabeled, filled syringe in the patient’s medication drawer. What 5 important things should the nurse in charge do?

Before administering the evening dose of a prescribed medication, the nurse on the evening shift finds an unlabeled, filled syringe in the patient’s medication drawer.

What should the nurse in charge do?

A. Discard the syringe to avoid a medication error
B. Obtain a label for the syringe from the pharmacy
C. Use the syringe because it looks like it contains the same medication the nurse was prepared to give
D. Call the day nurse to verify the contents of the syringe