Nurse who gave patients wrong injection avoids NMC suspension
Posted 04 December 2024 - 12:58
FtP panel says nurse who mistakenly administered a steroid injection instead of a contraceptive injection to two patients showed ‘admirable level of developing insight into her actions’
A nurse who mistakenly gave patients a steroid injection instead of a contraceptive injection has avoided suspension by the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC).
A fitness to practise (FtP) hearing heard how practice nurse Megan Lawrence administered the anti-inflammatory Depo-Medrone to two patients who were prescribed the contraceptive Depo-Provera in November 2021.
Error identified by nurse’s colleague after patient displayed unusual symptoms
The error was picked up three months later when one of the patients returned to the GP surgery for her next dose of the contraceptive and reported she had experienced unexplained bleeding for three weeks.
As her symptoms were unusual, a colleague checked the batch number of the previous injection, which revealed it was for a different medication ‘not generally given by nurses’.
The error meant the patient ‘may have experienced an unplanned pregnancy due to thinking she was protected when she wasn’t’, the panel heard.
A search of patient records identified a second patient who had also been given the steroid injection rather than the contraceptive.
When alerted to the issue, Ms Lawrence said that she ‘could not be certain’ whether she had given the wrong medication, but suggested that she may have recorded the wrong batch number from a discarded box of the steroid.
‘You stated that doctors administered Depo-Medrone and it was possible that a doctor may have left a box of Depo-Medrone on the nurses’ desk and you could have mistakenly recorded the incorrect batch number from that box,’ the FtP report said.
Practice nurse had shown ‘admirable level of developing insight into her actions’
Ms Lawrence, who worked at a GP surgery in Hampshire, also admitted giving medication prescribed to one patient to another, by altering a prescription label on the box and overwriting the name and dosage.
She told the panel that she did not consider this to be unsafe at the time, as the patient received their medication, but has since reflected that this was ‘indeed an error of judgement’.
Ms Lawrence also admitted incorrectly documenting that another patient had received a vitamin B12 injection when they had not.
The panel found that she had shown an ‘admirable level of developing insight into her actions’ and, as the hearing progressed, had further recognised the shortcomings in her practice at the time.
Fitness to practise panel issues conditions of practice order
‘You stated that if you or your family members were given the wrong drug in error, you would be upset and would want the nurse involved to reflect, learn and move on,’ the FtP report said.
The panel issued a conditions of practice order for 12 months, which includes supervision whenever administrating medication, supervision of record-keeping and monthly meetings on clinical workload with a line manager. Ms Lawrence is prohibited from undertaking agency work during this time.
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