If you notice a prescribed medication dose is missing, what should you do?

• A. Give a double dose to compensate.
• B. Report to supervisor.
• C. Ignore it.
• D. Change the dose time yourself.

Answer: (B)

When a prescribed medication dose is missing, the priority is to prevent medication errors by escalating to a licensed professional. The safest and correct step is to report the situation to your supervisor or a licensed nurse. They can verify the medication record, determine whether the dose was missed, already given, or needs to be rescheduled, and contact the prescriber or pharmacy to decide the next actions. This protects the resident from underdosing or overdosing and keeps the regimen on track. Do not attempt to compensate by giving extra medication, change the timing yourself, or ignore the gap. After reporting, follow facility policy and document what you observed and the actions taken.