A nursing student is newly assigned to care for a client transferred from the intensive care unit from another hospital who needs pain medication

Question

The student noticed that the client's identification wristband is not present, and there is a client identification band taped to the client's foot of his bed, which looks different from other bands the nursing student has seen in the hospital. Which action should the nurse take next?
A) Ask the client to state his first and last name and date of birth and, if it matches the computerized chart, skip scanning the band and go ahead and administer the medication
B) Ask the client to state his first and last name and date of birth and compare the information with the wrist band taped to the bed and, if it matches, administer the medication
C) Ask the client's primary care nurse to properly identify the client and place a client identification wristband on the client before administering medication
D) Ask the client if he is John Jones and born November 15, 1970, and if affirmed, place the wristband at the end of the bed on the client's wrist and repair it with tape, and administer the med

Answer 1

Ans: C
Feedback:
The nursing student should make the primary care nurse aware that the client's wrist identification band is not present, so the client needs to be properly identified and a new band placed. The student may state that there is a client identification band taped to the end of the bed, which does not look like the hospital's band. The nursing student should not assume that the band taped at the end of the bed is correct because the client was transferred from another hospital and the band may be from that hospital. The student should not bypass safety features of the medication administration system by identifying the client without using the proper hospital-approved identification band. The nursing student should not read the information of name and birthdate to a client and ask to affirm it because if the client was confused or did not hear the student correctly, the client may state "yes" and the nurse could make a medication error by administering the med to the wrong client.