Medication administration procedures and best practices

¶ … Administer Medication

One of the major responsibilities of nurses is to administer medication, which is a practice that is centered on providing patients with a prescribed substance that is geared towards the diagnosis, prevention, or treatment of a medical condition. The administration of medication also involves definite and total delivery of a prescribed substance to the patient. While there is a single goal of administering medication, there is a wide range of practices that are needed to achieve safe and effective patient outcomes. This practice also consists of a series of practices that are required to plan for and assess the result of administering medication. Generally, the process of administering medication begins with the order for the medicine, which is usually prepared by physicians. This is followed by different routes of administration that are associated with certain advantages and disadvantages. These administration routes also have different implications on the effectiveness of the drug therapy and drug treatment experience by the patient. This paper discusses the different routes of administering medication in light of their advantages and disadvantages as well as implications.

The ability of a drug to reach its intended site of action in the body is usually determined by two major factors i.e. bioavailability of the drug and route of administration ("The Administration of Medicines," 2007). The bioavailability of the drug is the percentage of an administered drug that reaches the general circulation and is accessible for distribution to the anticipated site of action. In contrast, the route of administration is the manner in which a patient is provided with a prescribed substance in order to prevent, diagnose, or treat a medical condition or illness. The most common routes of administration include oral, sublingual, topical, and parenteral administration. These routes determine the degree with which the patient obtains any clinical benefit and the likelihood of any adverse effects from the substances.

Oral administration is the most commonly used route because it's convenient and economical. This process primarily involves the provision of drugs in solid dose forms like tablets and capsules with high degree of drug stability. The main advantage of oral administration of medication is that doses are normally required to be taken once or twice every day. However, this method is associated with the disadvantage of problematic and unpredictable nature of gastro-intenstinal absorption of drugs. Sublingual administration is a method involving the use of sublingual mucosa that provides a rich supply of blood vessels for drug absorption. An example of sublingual administration is the treatment of acute angina through glyceryl trinitrate. While this route offers rapid absorption into the systemic circulation, it's suitable in specific markets where taking tablets may be problematic.