Medication orders require five components that should all be checked at least three times before administering the medication. If ALL FIVE are not present, the medication should be held and the prescribing physician should be contacted.
These five components are:
1) the patient's name (and date of birth and or room number in case there are patients with the same name)
2) the name of the medication (preferably the generic name unless the prescribing physician specifically request the brand name)
3) the dose of the medication (making sure to omit trailing zeros and include leading zeros in decimals as well as avoid the abbreviations that are prone to misinterpretation)
4) the route of administration (the person administering the medication must know how to do so)
5) the time of administration (the person administered must also know when to do so)
A sixth component is possibly the why, however, it is not a requirement -- though the person administering should be aware of its reasoning, as well as mechanism of action, potential side effects, potential patient education, and what may need to be monitored as a result of administration.