A Renew Now CE student used a resource from a course to avoid making a medication error.
From a registered nurse (RN) working in the Post Anesthesia Care Unit (PACU):
A patient status-post endovascular AAA repair had an incision on each groin. Upon assessment the RN caring for the patient noticed a large hematoma to the right groin proximal to the incision and applied pressure. The surgeon was immediately notified and promptly came to the bedside to apply pressure to the patient’s groin. The patient’s blood pressure was elevated (180s/90s) so the surgeon began giving verbal orders for IV antihypertensives. The surgeon also gave an order for protamine sulfate, the antidote to IV heparin. Protamine sulfate is not normally stocked in the Pyxis. As soon as the protamine sulfate arrived at the bedside, the surgeon ordered to give it “wide open”. As a nurse who does not ordinarily administer protamine sulfate, she decided to look it up on DailyMed.
After a quick review of DailyMed, the nurse found that a safe dose and administration of protamine sulfate was 50mg over 10 minutes. The nurse had just completed Renew Now CE’s course, Preventing Medical Errors and was aware of the DailyMed Drug Guide available on the NIH website. The nurse felt supported by reputable scientific evidence available on DailyMed.