A medication administration record, or MAR, is the signed record of every dose given to one person over a month: what was given, when, by whom, and why a dose was held or refused. Copy the free template, see a long-term care and a group home example, and check what goes in each part, from hold parameters to the monthly review.
Blank medication administration record template
FreeMEDICATION ADMINISTRATION RECORD Month and year: [Month, year] Setting: [Facility or home name, unit, room or bed] Page: [Page number] of [Total pages] RESIDENT OR PATIENT Name: [Full name] Date of birth: [Date] Photo on file: [Yes, with the date taken, or no] Diagnoses: [Conditions the medications treat] Allergies: [Drugs, foods, and latex, with the reaction, or no known allergies] Weight: [Weight and the date measured] How they take medicines: [Whole, crushed, liquid, in applesauce, or with water; any swallowing concerns] Prescriber: [Name and phone] Pharmacy: [Name, phone, packaging, and cycle start date] SCHEDULED MEDICATIONS Copy this block for each medication. Medication: [Name, strength, and form] Dose and route: [How much, and how it's given, such as 1 tablet by mouth] Frequency and times: [How often, and each time it's due] Reason: [What it's for] Start date: [Date] Stop date: [Date, or ongoing] Special instructions: [Checks before giving, hold parameters such as a pulse or blood pressure limit, with or without food, may crush or don't crush] Grid, one line per time it's due, with initials or a code in each day: [Time]: [Day 1] [Day 2] [Day 3] [Day 4] [Day 5] [Day 6] [Day 7] and on through [Day 31] [Time]: [Day 1] [Day 2] [Day 3] [Day 4] [Day 5] [Day 6] [Day 7] and on through [Day 31] Readings: [Pulse, blood pressure, or blood sugar, written in the box when the order needs a check] CODES FOR DOSES NOT GIVEN Write the code in the box, then a note below. R: Refused H: Held, for a hold parameter or the prescriber's instruction A: Away, on leave or at a program V: Vomited after the dose N: Not available O: Other, explained in the note Note for each code: [Date, time, medication, code, reason, what you did, who you told, initials] PRN MEDICATIONS Medication: [Name, strength, and form] Dose and route: [How much, and how it's given] Reason to give: [The reason in the order, such as pain or a seizure lasting 5 minutes] Minimum time between doses: [Hours] Maximum in 24 hours: [Number of doses or total amount] Protocol: [Seizure, allergy, or other action plan; when to repeat; when to call 911; who is trained to give it] Each dose: [Date and time] · Reason and assessment: [Symptom, score, or seizure timing] · Dose: [Amount] · Given by: [Initials] · Effect: [Result, time checked, initials] CONTROLLED DRUG COUNT Where the law or your organization requires one. Medication: [Name, strength, and form] Count: [Date and time] · On hand: [Number] · Counted by: [Two signatures] Received, used, or wasted: [Amount, reason, and witness] Signed out and back in: [For leave or a program: amount, who took it, and when it came back] Discrepancy: [What didn't match, who was told, and the outcome] SIGNATURE AND INITIALS KEY [Initials]: [Printed name, role, and signature] [Initials]: [Printed name, role, and signature] MONTHLY REVIEW New month checked against current orders: [Date, and the two people who checked] Changes this month: [Medications started, changed, or stopped, with the date and prescriber] Medication review: [Date of the last prescriber or pharmacist review, recommendations, and the next one due]
Use it for
Each one follows the template. Use them to judge how much detail every part needs.
Long-term care home, October record, days 3 to 6 shown
86-year-old woman, room 214B. Photo on the MAR, updated in August. Diagnoses: Alzheimer’s dementia, moderate; atrial fibrillation; hypertension; osteoarthritis of the right knee. Allergies: sulfa antibiotics, hives. Weight 54 kg (119 lb) on Oct 1. Takes tablets whole, one at a time, in a spoonful of applesauce; the pharmacist has listed which may be crushed if her swallowing changes. Prescriber: the home’s nurse practitioner, with her attending physician. Pharmacy: the home’s contracted pharmacy, weekly blister packs, cycle starting on the 1st.
Metoprolol tartrate 25 mg tablet, 1 by mouth twice daily at 08:00 and 20:00, for atrial fibrillation and blood pressure; since February 2025, ongoing. Check the apical pulse for 1 full minute and the blood pressure before each dose; hold if the pulse is under 55 or the systolic pressure under 100, and tell the nurse practitioner. Apixaban 2.5 mg tablet, 1 by mouth twice daily at 08:00 and 20:00, to prevent stroke; ongoing. Donepezil 10 mg tablet, 1 by mouth at 20:00, for dementia; ongoing. Vitamin D3 1,000 units, 1 tablet by mouth daily at 08:00; ongoing.
Metoprolol 08:00: day 3 JT, pulse 62 · day 4 H, pulse 52 · day 5 JT, pulse 60 · day 6 JT, pulse 64. Metoprolol 20:00: day 3 PB, pulse 66 · day 4 PB, pulse 64 · day 5 PB, pulse 68 · day 6 PB, pulse 66. Apixaban 08:00 and 20:00: initialed every day. Donepezil 20:00: day 3 PB · day 4 PB · day 5 R · day 6 PB. Vitamin D3 08:00: initialed every day.
Oct 4, 08:00, metoprolol, code H: apical pulse 52, regular, counted for 1 minute; BP 104/62. Held as ordered. No dizziness, chest pain, or shortness of breath; ate her breakfast. Apixaban and vitamin D given. Nurse practitioner told at 08:20: no change to the order, recheck at 12:00. Pulse 58 at 12:00. Held dose not given late; the 20:00 dose was given with a pulse of 64. JT. Oct 5, 20:00, donepezil, code R: took her metoprolol and apixaban, then closed her lips and turned away from the donepezil, saying “that one makes me sick.” Offered again at 20:30 by a care aide she knows well; still refused. Not hidden in food: there is no order for that. Charge nurse told at 20:40; nausea and loose stools noted twice this week. PB. Oct 6: the nurse practitioner reviewed the refusal and the nausea. Donepezil 10 mg stopped, its line closed with the stop date; donepezil 5 mg at 20:00 started on a new line from Oct 7. Her daughter, who makes health decisions for her, informed.
Acetaminophen 325 mg tablets: 650 mg by mouth every 6 hours as needed for pain, no more than 3,000 mg in 24 hours from all sources. Oct 6, 14:10: grimacing and holding her right knee when helped to stand; PAINAD 5. No acetaminophen in the past 24 hours. 650 mg given in applesauce, JT. Effect at 15:00: PAINAD 1, face relaxed, walked to the lounge with her walker. JT.
Key: JT, J. Tran, LPN, days; PB, P. Brooks, RN, evenings; each signed on their first shift of the month. Oct 30: the November record from the pharmacy checked line by line against current orders by 2 nurses; metoprolol hold parameters and the new donepezil dose carried over, the old dose not reprinted. For the nurse practitioner’s monthly review: morning pulse under 60 on 3 days, and 6 PRN acetaminophen doses for her knee this month, to consider a scheduled dose.
Group home with 24-hour support staff, October record, days 16 to 22 shown
29-year-old man with focal epilepsy, with seizures that can become tonic-clonic, and a moderate intellectual disability. Lives in a 4-bed group home with 24-hour support staff; the agency nurse trains staff to give medicines and checks their competence each year. Photo on the MAR, updated in May. Allergies: penicillin, hives. Weight 78 kg (172 lb). Swallows tablets whole with water. Prescribers: his neurologist for seizure medicines, his family doctor for the rest. Pharmacy: community pharmacy, 4-week blister packs; the rescue spray supplied separately. Seizure action plan signed by his neurologist in June, kept at the front of the MAR binder.
Levetiracetam 750 mg tablet, 1 by mouth twice daily at 08:00 and 20:00, for epilepsy; ongoing. Lamotrigine 150 mg tablet, 1 by mouth twice daily at 08:00 and 20:00, for epilepsy; ongoing. Special instructions for both: never skip or stop; if a dose will be more than 1 hour late, call the on-call nurse.
Levetiracetam and lamotrigine 08:00: day 16 KM · day 17 KM · day 18 A · day 19 KM · day 20 KM · day 21 TS · day 22 KM. 20:00: day 16 DR · day 17 A · day 18 DR · day 19 DR · day 20 DR · day 21 DR · day 22 DR, given at 20:00 after a sip of water showed he was swallowing safely.
Oct 17, 09:00 to Oct 18, 17:00: weekend visit with his mother. The 08:00 doses on Oct 17 given before he left. The 20:00 doses on Oct 17 and the 08:00 doses on Oct 18 coded A: sent in a pharmacy-labeled leave pack, 2 doses of each, signed out to his mother with the rescue spray and a copy of the seizure plan. On return she confirmed both doses were given on time and there were no seizures; leave pack checked empty, and the spray signed back in. KM.
Order and protocol: midazolam nasal spray 5 mg, 1 spray into one nostril for a seizure lasting 5 minutes, or 3 or more seizures in 1 hour. If he is still seizing 10 minutes later, 1 more spray into the other nostril; no more than 2 sprays for one episode. Call 911 if the seizure goes on 5 minutes after the first spray, if his breathing doesn’t return to normal, or if he is injured. Given only by staff trained on his plan. Oct 22, 16:40: stopped responding at the kitchen table with his right arm jerking, then a tonic-clonic seizure from 16:41. Timed from 16:40; chairs moved, cushion under his head, turned on his side. 16:45, still seizing: midazolam 5 mg, 1 spray into the right nostril, DR, trained on the plan in March. Effect: seizure stopped at 16:48, 8 minutes in all and 3 minutes after the dose, so 911 was not needed under his plan. Breathing noisy for 2 minutes, then regular at 16 a minute; lips pink. Small tongue bite, no other injury. Drowsy, answered to his name at 17:30, back to his usual self by 18:30. On-call nurse told at 16:52 and his mother at 17:05; seizure log updated; neurologist’s office notified the next morning, as the plan asks.
Midazolam nasal spray, single-use units: 4 on hand, 2 in the locked cabinet and 2 in the carton that goes with him to his day program and on visits. Counted by 2 staff at each shift change, and signed out and back in each time it leaves the house. Oct 22, 16:45: 1 unit used from the travel carton, 3 on hand; used device discarded as the pharmacy instructs. Count of 3 checked and signed by DR and TS at 23:00. Replacement ordered from the pharmacy on Oct 23.
Key: KM, K. Mensah, support worker, days; DR, D. Ruiz, support worker, evenings; TS, T. Singh, house lead; each trained and checked by the agency nurse. Oct 30: November packs and record checked against the neurologist’s and family doctor’s orders by the agency nurse and the house lead; no changes. First seizure needing the rescue spray since June: a review with his neurologist booked, and the agency nurse went over the seizure plan with all staff on Oct 26.
Who the record belongs to, and what anyone giving a dose needs to know before they start.
Avoid: An old photo or an empty allergy line. Staff who don’t know the person rely on both before the first dose.
One block per medication, copied exactly from the order, so the line reads the same as the prescription.
Avoid: Writing over a changed order. Close the old line with a stop date, and start a new line for the new dose.
One line per scheduled time, one box per day. Your initials in a box say you gave that dose and saw it taken.
Avoid: A blank box. Nobody can tell whether the dose was given, missed, or charted somewhere else.
A code says why a dose wasn’t given. The note says what happened next.
Avoid: Giving a held or refused dose later without checking. Follow the order or ask the prescriber, and never double the next dose.
Medicines given only when needed: the reason, the dose, and whether it worked.
Avoid: A PRN dose with no effect recorded. The next person can’t tell whether to repeat it or call the prescriber.
Where the law or your organization requires it, a running count of each controlled medicine, signed by two people.
Avoid: Signing a count you didn’t do. Both people count together, at the same time.
Who each set of initials belongs to, and the check that carries the record safely into the next month.
Avoid: A new month copied by hand with no second check. One transcription error carries a wrong dose forward for weeks.
Initialing the whole pass first, then giving the medicines. If the person refuses, vomits, or a dose is held, the record is false. Give the dose, watch it taken, then initial.
A familiar face is how wrong-person errors happen on a busy pass. Check two identifiers, such as name and date of birth, or name and the photo on the MAR, every time.
“H” alone doesn’t say why. Write the reading, what you did, and who you told, so the next shift and the prescriber can act on it.
Extended-release, enteric-coated, and some other tablets must not be crushed. Crush only what the order or the pharmacist says may be crushed, and give each medicine separately.
Giving a medicine hidden in food to someone who refused it needs a documented decision with the prescriber, the pharmacist, and the person’s decision-maker, under your organization’s policy. Without one, offer again later and record the refusal.
Dictate held doses, refusals, and PRN effects as you finish the medication pass. Vero Scribe writes them into the notes on your MAR template, with the reading, the reason, and who you told. You review and edit every line, then copy it into your record or export it to Word or PDF. Vero works in 60+ languages.
MAR stands for medication administration record: the signed record of every dose given to one person over a month. Each medication has a line for every scheduled time and a box for every day. The nurse or trained staff member initials the box after giving the dose, or writes a code and a note when it wasn’t given. Many hospitals use an electronic MAR; paper MARs are still common in long-term care, group homes, assisted living, and home care.
Before each dose, check the rights of medication administration: right person, medication, dose, route, and time, plus right reason and right documentation. Confirm the person with two identifiers, check allergies and any hold parameter, give the dose, and watch it taken. Then initial the box straight away. Never initial before the dose is given.
Write the code in the box, such as R for refused or H for held, then a note with the time, the reason, any reading such as a pulse, what you did, and who you told. Don’t give the dose later or double the next one unless the order or the prescriber says to.
A medication list is the person’s own list of everything they take, used to reconcile medicines at visits and transfers. A MAR is the record of each dose staff give, with times, initials, and doses not given. Check the new month’s MAR against current orders before the first dose.
Yes. Copy it, or download it as a Word or text file. No account needed.
System-by-system nursing assessment with pressure injury and fall risk, lines and drains, and escalation.
The shift note: assessment, timed vital signs and interventions, the response, provider calls, teaching, and the plan for the next shift.
Assessment data, nursing diagnosis, SMART outcomes, interventions with rationale, and evaluation, one diagnosis at a time.
The bedside handoff in I-PASS order: severity, systems, lines, meds due, pending labs, risks, to-dos, and read-back.
Focus charting in four parts: the focus, the data behind it, nursing actions, and the timed patient response.
Nursing notes, SBAR calls, and handoffs, drafted for your review.
Progress and DAR notes and shift handoffs, from your observations.
A person’s own list of medicines, for reconciliation at visits and transfers.
Vero writes your notes and letters in the templates you choose, so you review instead of type.
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