Question

according to the institute for safe medication practices (ismp), which of the following abbreviations should a pharmacy technician recognize as error-prone?

qod
daw
qid
mcg

Explanation:

Identify the core safety guidelines

Using the ISMP Guidelines and Error-Prone Abbreviations knowledge points

• The Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP) maintains a list of error-prone abbreviations, symbols, and dose designations that are frequently associated with medication errors.
• These abbreviations should be avoided in all forms of medical communication to prevent misinterpretation and patient harm.

Evaluate the abbreviation options

Using the Error-Prone Abbreviations knowledge point

• qod (or Q.O.D.): Means "every other day". It is highly error-prone because the "o" can easily be misread as "i", leading to "qid" (four times daily), which represents an eight-fold overdose. ISMP recommends writing out "every other day".
• daw: Stands for "Dispense as Written". This is a standard billing and dispensing code, not classified as an error-prone clinical abbreviation by ISMP.
• qid: Stands for "four times a day". While it must be read carefully, it is a standard Latin abbreviation that is not on the ISMP do-not-use list (unlike qod).
• mcg: Stands for "microgram". ISMP recommends using "mcg" instead of "µg" because the Greek letter mu (µ) can easily be misread as "m", leading to a thousand-fold overdose of milligrams (mg). Thus, "mcg" is the safe, preferred abbreviation.

Answer:

• (A) qod (Correct answer)
• (B) daw
• (C) qid
• (D) mcg