question about who's liable

4 posts · started Oct 18, 2006

rach0718 Oct 18, 2006, 8:44 AM
situation:

a patient wasnt able to buy her medications yet and so the nurse was not able to give her the medications on 8AM. at 9:30Am, the patient was able to secure the needed medications so the nurse prepared the medications and went to the patients room.
significant other 1 was just leaving the room so the nurse told her, "I'll be giving the meds now"..... inside the room, SO 2 was with the patient so the nurse asked the permission of both of them and gave drug A & B.
SO 1 then came back and said that she already gave drug A to the patient at 7:00Am. it was a drug that the patient wasnt able to take at 6PM the night before so she gave it to the patient at 7:00AM. so the patient had a double dose of the drug

ang question is... whose fault is it?
Maddie Nov 18, 2006, 9:02 AM
You can't be liable for something you were not made aware of. SO1 should have informed you that med A was already given. Was the patient not aware that he/she had been given this medicine already? To cover yourself, I would inform MD and make out Medication Incident Report citing exactly what happened.
denna rn Nov 20, 2006, 11:00 AM
Rach
Where I work, we have to have the medication Adm. Record in our hand before we give med, we have to ask them thier name and birthdate, check wrist bracelet and open meds at bedside, that way we can tell them what each med is and what it is for. I'm sure that nursing homes would be different, but medication administration documentation would have save the day. Denna
denna rn Nov 20, 2006, 11:12 AM
Rach
Where I work, we have to have the medication Adm. Record in our hand before we give med, we have to ask them thier name and birthdate, check wrist bracelet and open meds at bedside, that way we can tell them what each med is and what it is for. I'm sure that nursing homes would be different, but medication administration documentation would have save the day. Denna