The nine rights of medication administration: an overview

Br J Nurs. 2010 Mar;19(5):300-5. doi: 10.12968/bjon.2010.19.5.47064.

Abstract

Nurses are responsible for ensuring safety and quality of patient care at all times. Many nursing tasks involve a degree of risk, and medication administration arguably carries the greatest risk. Unfortunately, patients are frequently harmed or injured by medication errors. Some suffer permanent disability and for others the errors are fatal. Nurses have traditionally followed the five rights of medication administration (patient, drug, route, time, dose) to help prevent errors, and more recently, the seven rights (including documentation and reason). This article identifies nine rights of medication administration.

Publication types

  • Review

MeSH terms

  • Documentation
  • Drug Administration Schedule
  • Drug Monitoring / nursing
  • Drug Prescriptions / nursing
  • Drug Therapy / nursing*
  • Humans
  • Medication Errors / nursing
  • Medication Errors / prevention & control*
  • Medication Errors / statistics & numerical data
  • Nurse's Role*
  • Nursing Records
  • Patient Identification Systems
  • Patient Rights*
  • Patient Selection
  • Safety Management / organization & administration*