# Rights of Medication Administration --- The **rights of medication administration** are a series of rights to adhere to when [[medication administration|administering medications]]. "Right" in this case is a synonym of *correct*, not as in *privilege*. Some lists of the rights of medication administration include this definition, but I don't agree with that. Not only is it semantically confusing, these rights are a safety tool. Bogging the five or six rights down with privileges does no one any favors. For example, some lists include a "right to refuse", but that is a [[patient rights and responsibilities|patient right]] and not a safety check. The number of rights will change depending on who you ask. As far as I can tell it started with "five rights", and this has been added to over time by various groups. I have included six rights, as I'm of the firm opinion that the rights should be as simple as possible, and include only the most important safety rights. 1. Right **medication** 2. Right **patient** 3. Right **dose** 4. Right **route** 5. Right **time** 6. Right **reason** ___