Safe Medication I Flashcards
7 cards from real ISMP practice questions. Tap to flip, then mark Knew It or Still Learning — missed cards come back until you master them.
Read the first 7 Safe Medication I flashcards as text
Which labeling practice does ISMP recommend to differentiate look-alike IV bags at the bedside?
Answer: Apply brightly colored auxiliary labels and physically separate LASA infusions in storage
Auxiliary labels and physical separation of look-alike IV products reduce the risk of selecting the wrong infusion at the bedside.
A patient taking warfarin is admitted and reports taking 'a blood thinner.' The nurse does not reconcile the dose because it is not listed in the EHR. Per ISMP, what is the greatest risk?
Answer: An omission error — the warfarin is not continued or monitored, risking thromboembolic events
Medication reconciliation failures frequently result in omission errors, which are especially dangerous with anticoagulants.
An order reads 'insulin regular 10 units sub-Q AC breakfast.' The nurse prepares the dose 45 minutes before the meal tray arrives. What error is most likely to occur?
Answer: Hypoglycemia if the meal is further delayed or the patient refuses to eat
Regular insulin given before a meal that is then delayed puts the patient at risk for hypoglycemia, a serious and preventable adverse event.
Which best describes the ISMP concept of a 'near miss' in medication safety?
Answer: An error that was caught before it reached the patient, providing a learning opportunity
A near miss is an event that could have caused harm but was intercepted before reaching the patient; ISMP encourages reporting these for system improvement.
When a smart infusion pump's drug library is bypassed by a clinician using 'free-flow' programming, what key safety feature is defeated?
Answer: The hard and soft dose limits that prevent dangerous infusion rates are no longer enforced
Bypassing the drug library eliminates the dose-error reduction software (DERS), removing the guardrails that catch lethal programming mistakes.
A nurse is asked to administer a chemotherapy agent but has not completed oncology medication competency. Per ISMP, what is the correct action?
Answer: Decline to administer and notify the charge nurse to assign a competency-verified nurse
ISMP requires that only competency-verified staff administer high-alert drugs such as chemotherapy; a nurse without that competency should not proceed.
What is the ISMP-recommended approach when a patient questions whether a newly administered medication is correct?
Answer: Stop the administration process, listen to the patient's concern, and re-verify the five rights before continuing
ISMP encourages treating patient questions as a safety opportunity; stopping to re-verify has prevented wrong-drug and wrong-dose errors.