Nurses have a unique role and responsibility in medication administration, in that they are frequently the final person to check to see that the medication is correctly prescribed and dispensed before administration. It is standard during nursing education to receive instruction on a guide to clinical medication administration and upholding patient safety known as the ‘five rights’ or ‘five R’s’ of medication administration. These ‘rights’ came into being during an era in medicine in which the precedent was that an error committed by a provider was that provider’s sole responsibility and patients did not have as much involvement in their own care.
The five traditional rights in the traditional sequence include:
