North Carolina Medication Aide (Med Tech) Practice Exam 2025 - Free Med Tech Practice Questions and Study Guide

When administering medications via a feeding tube, the foremost step involves checking the tube placement. This is critical for ensuring that the medication is delivered to the appropriate area within the gastrointestinal tract. Proper tube placement minimizes the risk of complications such as aspiration, where the medication could inadvertently enter the lungs instead of the stomach, which can lead to serious health issues, including pneumonia.

Verifying the patient's identity, while essential in medication administration to prevent errors, comes after confirming the tube's correct placement. Ensuring medication compatibility is also important, but it is contingent on knowing that the feeding tube is correctly positioned first. Preparing all medications in advance is useful for efficiency but is secondary to ensuring that the actual route for medication delivery is secure. Thus, checking tube placement is the fundamental first step in the safe administration of medications via a feeding tube.