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Hi all,
I am an associate degree RN taking RN-BSN classes and I have a question that I hope someone can help with. If an RN takes out a vial of insulin that is outdated and over the course of 10-15 minutes gives 5 people injections, she/he doesn't ever put the vial in the fridge, so they have only checked the label once. Is that 5 medications errors incidents or just one since they were drawn up at or around the same time? I have tried to find this information but I have a hard time understanding the lingo in the Nurse Practice Act book I am looking things up in. Thanks for any help you can give me.
Daytonite, BSN, RN
1 Article; 14,604 Posts
i went to the website of the texas board of nursing and looked at both the nursing law and the rules and regulations. http://www.bon.state.tx.us/nursinglaw/ - texas nursing laws. there is nothing specific in the law that will help you decide whether the scenario you were given are medication errors. i would answer your question as a "no" insofar as it being a violation of the nursing law. now, this rn has probably violated her facility policy and procedures in some way and incident reports should be made out, but there is no way of knowing what those policies and procedures are except that good nursing practice pretty much guide what most facility policy and procedures are. laws tend to be more on the vague side and things get more specific as you get down to individual places.
there is a position paper on medication errors on the texas website: http://www.bon.state.tx.us/practice/position.html#15.17: