Do NOT crush these medications when crushing pills for medication administration. This is a mnemonic to help you remember which category of drugs you can NOT crush. This list will help you remember the group of medications that you should NOT crush for a tube feeding and oral administration.

Why do we crush medications? If a patient has a feeding tube or can't swallow medications whole due to swallowing difficulties, we must crush the medication.

Tips on crushing medications: Not all medications can be crushed! Always consult with pharmacy if you are not 100% sure if a medication can be crushed. Also, look at the name of the drug for certain letters. For example, Detrol LA or Toprol XL are both long-acting medications that can’t be crushed.

These are the general categories of drugs that cannot be crushed:
Enteric coated (EC)
Long acting (LA. XL)
Extended release (ER, XR)
Controlled release/delivery (CR, CD)
Sustained release/action (SR, SA)

Always assess swallowing status before administering oral medications, and placement of feeding tube per hospital protocol.

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