MAR confusion

Hi,
I'm wondering if everyone finds the MARs to be as confusing as I do? The computer print out at my hospital, for example, has meds (non-prn) printed out in no specific order. So, while pulling the 0900 meds, it seems so easy to mistakenly give a 1400 med or something like that.

Does anyone else find the MARs to be confusing like this or is it just me? How do you ensure you are not giving a med at the wrong time? If you have a good technique pls explain.


At my hospital we do not print out the MAR, we are required to carry a laptop when giving meds and we use the MAR right off the screen. It works out very well.

My home health agency continues to use handwritten MARs. I find this to be a better system than the printed ones I've used in the past in facilities. When writing the MARs out for the new month, I always list the meds in alphabetical order and start the times at midnight so it is uniform and very easy to read. The computer generated ones I've seen were often incomplete and confusing.

The MARs we use are printed by the computer once a month. If an order is d/c'd we cross out the old order and write in the new one in a new box. This gets confusing if the patient has orders that are constantly changing. But in most cases theres no problem. We do use regular time. 8:30am, 4:30pm, 9:00pm etc. I find it easier this way.

We use computer-generated MARS too. Like yours, all the times are mixed together. I have learned to read the MARS very carefully for times. At my old facility 7-3 meds were left as is, 3-11p meds were circled in green and 11-7 med circled in red.

At my facility we have hand-written MAR's, which change constantly as I work in a hospital on a Med/Surg. unit...When something is canceled it is yellowed out with hi-liter....and times are written in. I find this confusing at times, but, to be honest I am new and have a ton of information at once....so many things are confusing.

Like Sarah, we use the Mars on the computer. When I first started working, my "preferences" weren't set up correctly, so all the times were jumbled.... a kind nurse reset my page so that the meds pop up in correct order. If your Mar is computer generated, surely the technology exists that can sort your meds in chronological order and print them out accordingly??? Why must hospitals make it so difficult for us to practice safely? It's just common sense.

Sticky notes? : /