medication errors

[nursingrnb]

If a student nurse administers a medication without the supervision of their instructor, but with the instructor knowing they are administering the medication and a medication error occurs, such as administering a blood pressure medication, i.e. the patient's apical is 50 and blood pressure was 98/60 and the student still administers the medication. Who is all held responsible for the error.

[Adele_Michal7, ASN, RN]

I'm not sure, I always thought the instructor would be?

[JustBeachyNurse, LPN]

Both instructor & student plus possibly the patient's nurse depending on their role (obtaining medication, interacting with student, documentation, etc)

[RN403, BSN, RN]

Both would more than likely be responsible. This is why most programs require malpractice insurance and why most instructors carry a higher level of protection with their malpractice insurance.

[RiskManager]

As the risk manager, I would be asking both the student and the instructor some questions.

[llg, PhD, RN]

Definitely, both. Students should know they are not allowed to give meds unsupervised -- and instructors should know they cannot allow students to give meds unsupervised.

[Okami_CCRN, BSN, RN]

I do not understand how something like this would happen, most nursing schools require that the instructor be present during medication administration and co-sign the med that was administered.

If this was a breach in policy then the instructor and student will be held responsible along with the primary nurse who administered the medication with the student

This is why recent vitals must be taken when administering a cardiac medication that could have unfavorable patient outcomes, the instructor should have known what medication was being administered and then quiz the student on the medication including nursing implications. In my program if a student failed to provide information about the medication then they would not be allowed to administer the medication.

[Kittenlove]

As the previous poster said, I would investigate the student, instructor and the assigned nurse that was on duty to get a clear story. The student will be held accountable no matter what.