Medication Safety

This is an indicative sample document provided solely for learning

purposes and should not be relied on in practice in your
workplace, training environment or otherwise. You should ensure
you review and are aware of the specific rules, regulations and
procedures of your workplace or training environment.

• Medication safety is a very broad term that includes any and all
aspects of the management and administration of medications to
ensure a safe outcome for the patient.
• Nationally every year many medication errors are made that result in
patient harm or in extreme cases, death. In many cases however,
medication errors pass completely undetected.
• Processes and guidelines have been put in place in order to
enhance medication safety and minimise errors.
• The Australian Commission for Safety and Quality in Health Care is
a government agency that sought to improve the safety of
medications through the standardisation of medication ordering in
hospitals. Among many other initiatives to improve safety and quality
in the Australian health care industry, they designed the National
Inpatient Medication Chart.
• It is strongly recommended that you bookmark and spend some time
looking through the Australian Commission for Safety and Quality in
Health Care’s website: http://www.safetyandquality.gov.au
• The Medication Management for Health Professionals software
program aims to improve medication safety by addressing the
component of safety that deals with the RIGHTS OF MEDICATION

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 ADMINISTRATION.
• The rights of medication administration act as a guideline for practice
to ensure safe medication administration and outcomes.
• Each right of medication administration recognises steps in the
process where prescription or administration mistakes can occur. By
diligently following the rights of medication administration you can
reduce the chance of errors being made.
• Different training institutions and workplaces may teach and practice
a different number of rights of medication administration. As such the
list below may vary slightly depending on where you training or
practicing.
• Additional information about each of the rights of medication
administration is provided in the Medication Management for Health
Professionals software program as separate learning resources.

The Rights of Medication Administration

• The rights of medication administration include:

o Right Route
o Right Medication
o Right Dose
o Right Time
o Right Patient
o Right Documentation
o Right Reason
o Right Response
o Right Education
o Right to Refuse

© Copyright IntelliLearn Pty Ltd 2012. All rights reserved

 The Rights of Medication Administration
Right What it means

Right Route Ensure the medication is administered via the right route

Right Medication Ensure the right medication is administered to the patient

Right Dose Ensure the right dose is administered to the patient

Right Time Ensure the medication is administered at the right time

Right Patient Ensure the medication is administered to the right patient

Right Ensure the documentation following medication administration is

Documentation completed correctly

Right Reason Ensure the medication is being administered for the right reason

Ensure the patient has had the right response to the

Right Response
administration of the medication

Ensure that both health professional and patient are educated

Right Education
about the medication being administered

Right to Refuse The patient’s rights regarding medical treatment

Above: The rights of medication administration with a brief explanation of

what each one means. The number of rights of medication administration
may vary depending on your workplace or training institution.

© Copyright IntelliLearn Pty Ltd 2012. All rights reserved