The Florida Senate

400.488  Assistance with self-administration of medication.--

(1)  For purposes of this section, the term:

(a)  "Informed consent" means advising the patient, or the patient's surrogate, guardian, or attorney in fact, that the patient may be receiving assistance with self-administration of medication from an unlicensed person.

(b)  "Unlicensed person" means an individual not currently licensed to practice nursing or medicine who is employed by or under contract to a home health agency and who has received training with respect to assisting with the self-administration of medication as provided by agency rule.

(2)  Patients who are capable of self-administering their own medications without assistance shall be encouraged and allowed to do so. However, an unlicensed person may, consistent with a dispensed prescription's label or the package directions of an over-the-counter medication, assist a patient whose condition is medically stable with the self-administration of routine, regularly scheduled medications that are intended to be self-administered. Assistance with self-medication by an unlicensed person may occur only upon a documented request by, and the written informed consent of, a patient or the patient's surrogate, guardian, or attorney in fact. For purposes of this section, self-administered medications include both legend and over-the-counter oral dosage forms, topical dosage forms, and topical opthalmic, otic, and nasal dosage forms, including solutions, suspensions, sprays, and inhalers.

(3)  Assistance with self-administration of medication includes:

(a)  Taking the medication, in its previously dispensed, properly labeled container, from where it is stored and bringing it to the patient.

(b)  In the presence of the patient, reading the label, opening the container, removing a prescribed amount of medication from the container, and closing the container.

(c)  Placing an oral dosage in the patient's hand or placing the dosage in another container and helping the patient by lifting the container to his or her mouth.

(d)  Applying topical medications.

(e)  Returning the medication container to proper storage.

(f)  Keeping a record of when a patient receives assistance with self-administration under this section.

(4)  Assistance with self-administration does not include:

(a)  Mixing, compounding, converting, or calculating medication doses, except for measuring a prescribed amount of liquid medication or breaking a scored tablet or crushing a tablet as prescribed.

(b)  The preparation of syringes for injection or the administration of medications by any injectable route.

(c)  Administration of medications through intermittent positive pressure breathing machines or a nebulizer.

(d)  Administration of medications by way of a tube inserted in a cavity of the body.

(e)  Administration of parenteral preparations.

(f)  Irrigations or debriding agents used in the treatment of a skin condition.

(g)  Rectal, urethral, or vaginal preparations.

(h)  Medications ordered by the physician or health care professional with prescriptive authority to be given "as needed," unless the order is written with specific parameters that preclude independent judgment on the part of the unlicensed person, and at the request of a competent patient.

(i)  Medications for which the time of administration, the amount, the strength of dosage, the method of administration, or the reason for administration requires judgment or discretion on the part of the unlicensed person.

(5)  Assistance with the self-administration of medication by an unlicensed person as described in this section does not constitute administration as defined in s. 465.003.

(6)  The agency may by rule establish procedures and interpret terms as necessary to administer this section.

History.--s. 7, ch. 99-332.