Question

youve just begun your career as a pharmacy technician at a retail pharmacy. your primary duty is to enter prescriptions, including transcribing sig codes and abbreviations. a patient comes to the counter with a hand - written prescription for insulin. the prescribers handwriting is not very neat, and the strength of the insulin is much higher than you have seen. it is a busy time of day and you feel rushed. after entering the prescription into the computer system, you realize the prescriber did not spell out the word unit and instead used the letter u, which is an error - prone abbreviation. what do you do?

Explanation:

As a pharmacy technician, patient - safety is paramount. The use of the error - prone "U" abbreviation for unit can lead to serious medication errors. Contacting the prescriber to clarify the prescription is the best course of action to avoid potential harm to the patient.

Answer:

Contact the prescriber to clarify the insulin strength and ask them to spell out the word "unit" instead of using the abbreviation "U".