School Nurse Gives Wrong Medication

Specialties School

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Specializes in Pediatrics, Community Health, School Health.

This was a story on our local news last night. Would love to know what really happened.

Parents: Child Gets Wrong Medicine at School Nurse's Office in Blackstone | NECN

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I can't get the link to open but I googled it and found stories from late August. Is that the same incident? A nurse that gave Ritalin instead of an inhaler?

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Specializes in school nursing, ortho, trauma.

Indeed - I have a thousand questions about this.

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Specializes in Pediatrics, Community Health, School Health.
I can't get the link to open but I googled it and found stories from late August. Is that the same incident? A nurse that gave Ritalin instead of an inhaler?

No, a nurse gave Ritalin instead of Motrin. Happened yesterday , 7 year-old girl. Kid is totally fine. Went into office b/c hurt elbow, and news reported the nurse thought she was a different kid and gave her another kid's ritalin. Parents "don;t want to have disciplinary action taken against nurse, but want school to be aware so nurses can have better medication protocol". My question is, why alert the media and have news coverage then?

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Hm. I wonder why I can't get the link to open. And I don't see any other news stories on it.

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Specializes in IMC, school nursing.

Every nurse's nightmare.

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Specializes in kids.

I don't really understated the over the top reaction (IMHO). The nurse addressed it, owned it, didn't just let it slide, which could be easy to do. The potential is huge, but thankfully the kiddo will be ok.

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Specializes in School Nurse.

I'm curious if it was a sub nurse or someone covering the clinic. It's almost December, I would think the nurse knows her students by now.

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I did a paper on Medication Errors in School Health when I was getting my BSN. There is basically NO research out there, and NO standardized approach to stop it. I agree w/ the other poster, it's every nurse's nightmare.

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I'm curious if it was a sub nurse or someone covering the clinic. It's almost December, I would think the nurse knows her students by now.

I think this would depend on how large the school is. I work in a school of 1100+ and there is no way I know every student.

But if Ritalin was given, I will guess (but not assume) that it is for a daily medication. So that student it seems like the RN would be familiar with. Seems like it would be very difficult to confuse motrin with Ritalin. I wonder if the students have very similar names? there is more to know here

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Specializes in Pediatrics, Community Health, School Health.
I think this would depend on how large the school is. I work in a school of 1100+ and there is no way I know every student.

But if Ritalin was given, I will guess (but not assume) that it is for a daily medication. So that student it seems like the RN would be familiar with. Seems like it would be very difficult to confuse motrin with Ritalin. I wonder if the students have very similar names? there is more to know here

Exactly- Ritalin is a daily medication, given at the same time every day at school. Wouldn't she have been getting it fir a while? Just weird story...

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Exactly- Ritalin is a daily medication, given at the same time every day at school. Wouldn't she have been getting it fir a while? Just weird story...

The only exception that I can think of is that I have a couple students who keep 2 or 3 pills here in case the morning dose is forgotten and they don't take an afternoon dose. I get a PRN order from the dr saying "administer X mg of Y medication if pt forgets to take dose at home"

However, I don't take the kid's word for it. I always call to confirm with a parent that the dose was forgotten before administering.

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