Nursing - Mixing Bottles of Medication
News Corner: Results of HIMSS Survey Highlight Nurses Mixed
The two nursing home patients needed IVs of a saline solution mixture.
But the Sunderland nursing home had run out of automatic pumps to deliver the medication. And the nursing supervisor presiding over the patients’ care that night at New England Health Center had scant experience administering intravenous medication, a state review found.
So the nurse guessed at the right amount, grabbing a flashlight to peer into the IV and make sure the dosage was correct.
Only later would a nurse on the next shift discover that the patients were being given the wrong medication.
The two patients, both in hospice care, were dead within two weeks. The nursing home said there was no connection between the medication mix-up and their deaths, and state health officials did not challenge that view.

Various definitions of Nursing Informatics have been proposed; perhaps the most widely currently accepted definition...

