10 tips to avoid medication errors
Two call bells are ringing, a patient’s pump is beeping and a relative has just motioned for a word as you’ve started your medication round. Sound familiar? It’s important for nurses to become familiar with various strategies to prevent or reduce the likelihood of medication errors. Here are 10 tips that may help. The ‘rights’ […]
5 questions you should ask your health professional before leaving hospital with opioids
Hospital staff will be encouraged to provide a new two-page guide to patients who are prescribed opioids as inpatients or on discharge as part of a national effort to help reduce their side effects and the risk of addiction. Released today by the NPS MedicineWise Choosing Wisely Australia initiative, the Managing pain and opioid medicines […]
Drug could reverse antibiotic resistance
A drug that was originally designed to help Alzheimer’s and Huntington disease may actually be beneficial in combating antibiotic resistant bacteria. The University of Queensland researchers have been investigating the antibacterial properties of the drug. Professor Mark Walker from UQ’s School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences said the drug PBT2 was designed to disrupt the […]
Revised guide for safely administering oral medicines
An updated version of a key guide to safely administering oral medicines to people with enteral feeding tubes or swallowing difficulties has made information easier and faster to scan in a bid to further assist the decision-making of nurses. Released last month, the comprehensively revised third edition of The Society of Hospital Pharmacists of Australia’s […]