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Simple techniques that help you retrieve information quickly are worth sharing, and you can devise your own too
Memory retrieval techniques such as mnemonics and acronyms are an important tool for safe nursing practice and medicine management.
Nursing Standard. 38, 3, 43-44. doi: 10.7748/ns.38.3.43.s17
Published: 01 March 2023
We all know that the learning process is a continuous curve. Roles and responsibilities in nursing keep changing and remembering the necessary information can feel overwhelming.
In many roles, whether in clinical or education settings, an important responsibility is to mentor new starters and students. When taking in information, they too can feel inundated.
Learning tools such as mnemonics and acronyms are a useful way to absorb information. These can help nurses gain a deeper understanding of their responsibilities at work, and consequently can support safer practice.
Medicine administration is a big responsibility in nursing practice. The ‘five rights’ of medication administration was created to help medical professionals reflect on medicine safety and therefore reduce the likelihood of errors.
These stand for:
A sixth ‘right’ – the right to refuse – is sometimes added.
Although the ‘five rights’ is commonly used in practice, I found it difficult to remember what each ‘right’ was. In a time-sensitive situation where a patient needs medication, nurses’ recall needs to be immediate and accurate.
Understanding my own learning needs, while adapting to meet the learning needs of those I was mentoring, led me to develop mnemonic tools to support myself and others. I used positive or vivid word associations, for example foods or colours.
As a result I developed a mnemonic to help myself and others: Making Pizza Dough Regularly is Therapeutic. The first letter of each word is linked to the five rights by their initial letter, so:
This word association helps me to organise my thought process during drug administration, and to remember the ‘five rights’.
We can all devise and share ways to remember important nursing information. Nurses have a duty to provide safe care of the highest quality. We all have different learning needs and take different pathways to ensure our knowledge is up to date.
P.E.D.a.L think quick
Patient
» Are they safe?
» Have you conducted a set of observations? Are they normal?
» Have you informed the patient and/or family member?
Escalation
Documentation
» Has the incident been documented in the patient’s clinical notes?
» Has an IR1/Datix form been completed?
and Learn
» What can we do to reduce the risk?
» Have you reflected?
» Have the policy or guidelines been updated?
Source: Sybil Fernandes
Nurses are human, and errors can happen. When a drug error occurs, it is important to act quickly in response to the situation to ensure patient safety. Understanding what to do when this happens is important.
In response, I developed the acronym PEDaL. This acronym reminds you to think quickly as if pedalling a bicycle. It helps the individual focus on the following: the Patient, Escalation, Documentation and Learning.
The procedures may differ between organisations and practices, but the principles remain the same:
» Patient: make sure the patient is safe, their observations are normal, and the person or a family member knows about the drug error
» Escalation: the nurse should escalate the situation and inform the nurse they are working with, the nurse in charge, and a doctor
» Documentation: record the incident in the patient’s clinical notes, and an IR1/Datix form must be completed
» and…
» Learning: a drug error can be an opportunity to learn, reflect on ways to reduce risk in the future and update the policy or guidelines
Finding ways to support our learning needs benefits us and those around us, and sharing our successful methods means everyone can find techniques that resonate for them.
Nursing is a team effort. Through working together and using these examples, I hope to inspire nurses to continue learning, and think about how they retain information and develop individual memory aids.
In turn these can be passed on to those they mentor and teach, as can the principle of developing individual aids.
Using these acronyms and mnemonics and developing your own, will support memory recall, learning and understanding, and consequently improve patient safety.
