From the point where a patient enters the clinic, he goes through certain steps that lead him to recovery and of course exit from the hospital as a healthy person. For example, if a patient is admitted into the hospital with certain complaints; he gets himself registered in the reception.
After his registration, the patient comes to the respective doctor who examines him and prescribes drugs. Sometimes, the patient gets admission to the hospital especially if the symptoms are severe or certain monitoring is required for his condition. In such cases, a medication administration record sheet is the first thing to be maintained.
What is a medication administration record sheet?
A medication administration record is sometimes known as a drug chart. It is a report that keeps a record of the route of administration of a drug with other important details in it. This chart is always carefully maintained and kept as a part of the permanent record of the patient.
What is the format of the medication administration record sheet?
The medication administration record sheet has a variable format. Its form changes from one hospital to another. But the basic format is the same for all. There is a rule to mention particular information about the medication. Patterns and sequence of this information do change a little bit and that actually doesn’t matter at all.
A typical medication administration record sheet requires the particulars of the patient. We need to mention the proper and verified identity of the patient while making a record sheet like that. It will be extreme negligence to mix or forget the names of the patient and add someone else’s name and particular. You are going to get yourself in huge trouble if you do a blunder like that.
MAR or medication administration record sheet needs the name of the patient, age, and gender of the patient, contact details, and a primary diagnosis of the patient.
Some MAR sheets also demand the name of the consultant on the top of the sheet.
If a patient is allergic to a particular salt or drug, the nurse has to mention that drug in bold letters and with red ink. There is a zero-tolerance policy towards carelessness regarding allergies and associated details. We definitely don’t want to put anyone’s life by administering a potentially fatal drug.
After the identity of the patient is noted with complete verification care, the staff or nurse needs to start noting down the medication. This is a crucial step in the MAR sheet. All the medicines are mentioned with their correct names and concentrations.
Also, the route of administration is another crucial step in the MAR sheet. There are certain drugs that are only administered via the oral route. And then there are some drugs that we can only give intravenously or intramuscularly. On top of that, the route of administration must always be the same as the consultant prescribes.
Once the list is prepared, we mention the date and time of the administration after each dose and sign it properly. If a patient sees any allergic reactions, we stop the drug and record the reactions.
