Which of the following is one of the five rights of medication administration that a CMT must verify before giving any medication?

• A. Right patient
• B. Right clinician
• C. Right color
• D. Right location

Answer: (A)

Verifying the correct patient first is essential because it directly prevents giving the medication to the wrong person. This step is one of the standard checks used to keep medication administration safe: you confirm the patient, the drug, the dose, the route, and the time. The reason this is the best choice is that identifying the patient correctly stops errors at the earliest point, ensuring the medication goes to the intended person. In practice, use two identifiers—such as the patient’s full name and date of birth—and compare them with the patient’s ID bracelet and the medication order or MAR. The other options don’t fit as the primary verification step: color and location aren’t reliable safeguards for matching a medication to the right patient, and “right clinician” isn’t one of the formal rights used to guide safe administration.