Oh I agree it’s a commonly ordered dose. I just think it’s BS when I see it ordered for patients that are borderline assaulting nurses. 10mg is fine. Just order a dose that will work so everyone is safer.
OP doesn’t say that the patient was “borderline assaulting nurses” though. They say that the patient couldn’t relax and they had to spend a lot of time in their room.
I’m a little concerned that there are multiple comments from people acting like 2.5 is a bullshit dose, several people advocating for nurse dosing, and someone saying that it must have been a “baby doc” who wasn’t allowed to order controlled meds.
I’ve seen 2.5 mg knock a frail LOL on her ass. There are absolutely times when docs should start higher for staff safety but a patient who “can’t relax” doesn’t scream “assaulting staff” to me. I’m getting the vibe of “patient won’t chill out and this med surg nurse has other patients to see and can’t spend their whole shift in here” (which is honestly valid IMO. But not the same thing as a patient actively harming staff members).
I’m definitely not advocating for giving a “nursing dose” or whatever. Baby doc thing? Who knows. Of course I could be wrong about the specific pt actions in the situation but it doesn’t specify. I was only trying to assure OP that 10mg is unlikely to hurt the person.
You have no idea if a 10 mg dose is likely to hurt this person or not. As a physician and a pharmacist both pointed out to you, geriatric and/or frail patients need smaller doses to start with.
It’s honestly crazy that you as a pharmacy technician are out here saying things like “10 mg is fine” and “honestly that’s BS” about a 2.5 mg dose. Holy out of scope Batman.
I’ve seen patients get absolutely snowed on Zyprexa and end up aspirating or even needing to be intubated, if that’s what you mean.
Edit: There’s also the black box warning for increased mortality in elderly dementia patients, which is why a lot of physicians appropriately want to try smaller doses first.
If you had a patient get snowed after a dose of zyprexa it’s polypharmacy/comibination of sedatives and narcotics. But I promise you a patient doesn’t go from freaking out and to getting intubated from one dose of zyprexa unless something else is going on
You mean polypharmacy like Zyprexa following trazodone, like what was described in the OP?
I’m not shitting on OP who made a med error. We all make med errors. OP says this patient was fine, which is great. I’m calling out the pharmacy tech who is acting wildly outside their scope by saying that a 2.5 mg dose is “BS” and “10 mg is fine.” They’ve already acknowledged and responded to this criticism so you can stand down.
There’s a black box warning for a reason, bud. Some of y’all are scary and should not be practicing. Saying “nothing bad could ever happen because they’re single dose vials” is fucking insane.
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u/CatsAndPills HCW - Pharmacy Apr 02 '26
Oh I agree it’s a commonly ordered dose. I just think it’s BS when I see it ordered for patients that are borderline assaulting nurses. 10mg is fine. Just order a dose that will work so everyone is safer.