A nurse at a health care facility administers a prescribed drug to a client and does not record doing so in the medical administration record

. The nurse who comes during the next shift, assuming that the medication has not been administered, administers the same drug to the client again. The nurse on the previous shift calls to inform the health care facility that the administration of the drug to this client in the earlier shift was not recorded. What should the nurse on duty do immediately upon detection of the medication error?

A) Report the incident to the physician.
B) Report the incident to the supervising nurse.
C) Check the client's condition.
D) Fill in the accident report sheet.


Ans: C
On detection of the medication error, the nurse should immediately check the client's condition. When medication errors occur, nurses have an ethical and legal responsibility to report them to maintain the client's safety. As soon as the nurse recognizes an error, he or she should check the client's condition and report the mistake to the prescriber and supervising nurse immediately. Health care agencies have a form for reporting medication errors called an incident sheet or accident sheet.

Nursing

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