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Medications

How to give a medication safely (the rights)

Other platforms explain it with text and video. In Making Synapses you practice it on the patient.

Nursing (NCLEX)EMS (NREMT)
Practice it in VR with Blocky

The rights of medication administration turn safe practice into a checklist that can be repeated every time.

Step by step

  1. Right patient

    Two identifiers (name and date of birth) checked against the wristband and the medication record. [1]

  2. Right drug, dose, route and time

    Compare the label with the order three times: when you take it, when you prepare it, and at the bedside. [2]

  3. Check allergies

    Ask and check the record before every new medicine. [2]

  4. Assess before giving

    For example pulse and blood pressure before heart medicines, glucose before insulin, breathing before opioids. [2]

  5. Explain

    Tell the patient what the medicine is and why. Listen if they say it looks different. [2]

  6. Give and document

    Give it, then record it right away: drug, dose, route, time and your name. [2]

  7. Right response

    Come back to check the effect and side effects. [2]

Common errors

Practice it in Making Synapses

In Making Synapses you do this on the patient, not on paper: every step goes on the checklist with a score, and in Teach mode Blocky tells you what comes next.

Making Synapses cases that train this skill

516 Making Synapses cases train this skill: open the case library

Sources

  1. The Joint Commission, National Patient Safety Goals
  2. Open RN, Nursing Pharmacology 2e (CC BY 4.0)

Steps adapted from Open RN, Nursing Pharmacology 2e, licensed under CC BY 4.0. Facts and steps also follow The Joint Commission, National Patient Safety Goals. Making Synapses is not affiliated with these organizations. Updated: 2026-10-11.