Medications

How to give oral medications

Other platforms explain it with text and video. In VMS you practice it on the patient.

Nursing (NCLEX)
Practice it in VR with Blocky

Oral medicines are the most common. Safe steps prevent choking and errors.

Step by step

  1. Rights

    Patient, drug, dose, route, time, documentation. [1]

  2. Swallowing

    Check before giving. [1]

  3. Upright

    Sitting up. [1]

  4. Do not crush

    Extended-release or coated tablets; check the list. [1]

  5. Water

    Full glass unless restricted. [1]

  6. Stay and record

    Until taken; then document. [1]

Common errors

Practice it in VMS

In VMS you do this on the patient, not on paper: every step goes on the checklist with a score, and in Teach mode Blocky tells you what comes next.

VMS cases that train this skill

506 VMS cases train this skill: open the case library

Sources

  1. Open RN, Nursing Pharmacology 2e (CC BY 4.0)
  2. Open RN, Nursing Skills 2e (Chippewa Valley Technical College) (CC BY 4.0)

Steps adapted from Open RN, Nursing Pharmacology 2e and Open RN, Nursing Skills 2e (Chippewa Valley Technical College), licensed under CC BY 4.0. VMS is not affiliated with these organizations. Updated: 2026-10-11.