Student nurse gave IV pot, patient died.

Published

Anyone read/heard the story about the 3rd year student nurse who gave IV pot to a patient, patient died.

Seemingly, she drew up the drug with a sister, sister was called away so student gave the patient the pot undiluted IV.

The mind boggles, what was she thinking of? Press are slating nurse education.

Hospital involved was Whiston Hospital, Liverpool. Patients daughter was an anathetist who works at that hospital.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/e...de/7664404.stm

Specializes in Hemodialysis.

Sounds familiar. The very same scenario happened in the Philippines. It really caused an uproar in my country. The student was also in his 3rd year and came from my school. The victim ----- a very young child suffering from diarrhea. The hardest part was that the child was close to being discharged. I'm not really sure how the student nurse was able to get hold of the drug or even administer it without any supervision at all. I heard from his friend that no nurse was around at that time and they left the student nurses on the floor to practice for a choir competition. Horrible. I pity the student nurse. Think he dropped out of school.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Med/surg. ED. Palliative. Geront.

"....okay, I got down to about the seventh post before I figured out you weren't talking about marijuana ..."

hehehehehe

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in CTICU.

I think it's not just the student's fault - this should not be allowed to happen. Why did the supervising RN leave the student after drawing up the drug? Why did the RN not discuss the dangers of undiluted K+ and the method of administration while drawing up the drug? How did a student get to the point of clinicals without knowing about the dangers of K+ administration?

Very sad. I wonder what happened to that student. It would be devastating.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

This really highlights the differences between UK nursing and nursing in portugal, where I'm from. Nurses don't all learn how to administer IV medication? They don't all go through pharmacology? The mind boggles. :(

Medication errors ocurr regardless of the administration form. I'm sorry for the patient and their families, even though it's been so long.

I've administered potassium, diluted in NaCl 0.9%, but never directly... Here as nursing students we have to ask our preceptor when we have doubts on how to administer a certain medication, and during the second year they tend to watch us like hawks at first... But mistakes and unexpected things can happen at anytime. There have been several medication errors done by student nurses, and they will continue to exist. Same with graduate nurses medication mistakes, really. That's how I view it, at least.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

I wonder what has happened to the mentor and the student

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in PICU.

As a student I was always very nervous about IV drugs! Why on earth would she administer it? We were always taught to work to our limitations and IV drugs were drilled into us as a limitation! Mind there are some very confident students out there, maybe she thought she was doing the right thing!

I work in PICU where we do administer IV pot, but it HAS to go through a central line and be given over one hour!

x

Up Vote Up Vote ×
+ Join the Discussion