Half of all hospital drug injections are wrong

[Althalus]

Half of all drug injections given intravenously in hospitals are done wrongly, a new study reveals, with third of these being potentially dangerous.

British researchers uncovered the disturbing level of errors when they examined drugs given intravenously by nurses in two hospitals in the UK. They believe the rate of mistakes they found is likely to be representative of practice across Europe and the US

View: Full Article | Source: Yahoo News

[Kismit]

The older I get the more I realise even the highly trained and educated can make mistakes. I work with a woman that used to be a nurse and her first reaction to any problem seems to be panic.

[DEAD-HEAD]

Hi, Im a cardiac icu nurse. In my practice i use the 5 rights .

5 rights:

1. right patient

2. right med

3. right dose

4. right time

5. right route

if there is a med that i am not familiar with i always look it up. i check for interactions with other meds. and side effects. and how to give the med ( how fast to push it and does it need to be mixed) im not saying that mistakes dont happen but the nurse needs to use common sence. it really bothers me that many stupid medication mistakes happen. mistakes that can be avoided.

just venting. DEADHEAD

[racerette]

At the vet clinic I work at, I always triple check the meds I have to administer. The only mistake I've ever seen there while working is when one of the vets injected penicillin into a dog who was allergic to penicillin. The dog was alright but it was a scary mistake that won't happen again.

[Kismit]

Dead Head ,

I am personnally relived that any mistakes I make at work are not life threatening . I have all the respect in the world for people in your line of work .

I like to be informed on everything that is happening to my self and my children medically . After all medical staff are only human like the rest of us .