Nurse fronts tribunal over sedatives
Aformer paediatric nurse intern is facing 10 charges of administering restricted sedatives without approval, and putting two young patients at risk.
The female nurse, who has interim name suppression, appeared before the Health Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal in Auckland yesterday.
She is accused of medical misconduct for treatment provided to two patients in March and June 2017.
The charges against her allege that while working as a registered nurse and clinical nurse specialist intern at an Auckland hospital’s emergency department she gave the drugs propofol, fentanyl and ketamine to two patients without a prescription and supervision.
She is also accused of not providing full and accurate clinical notes.
In March 2017 the nurse allegedly treated a 15-year-old boy with a fractured ankle.
The patient needed to be “quite heavily sedated” in order to plaster the wound, tribunal notes said.
Records show the nurse administered ketamine, propofol and fentanyl. However, none of these drugs was documented on the patient’s medical chart.
In June 2017, the nurse allegedly treated an 11-year-old girl who suffered a broken leg.
Records show the nurse administered ketamine and propofol, and again these medications weren’t prescribed or documented.
A witness statement given at the tribunal by an emergency medicine specialist said propofol was not used often with children and rarely used on its own due to the risk of airway compromise.
She said propofol shouldn’t be given to a patient without a senior registrar or consultant being present.
In terms of ketamine, nurses need to be credentialed before they could administer it. Tribunal notes state the nurse in question had this credential, which meant she “was able to administer, if necessary, the prescribed dose of ketamine with a medical practitioner in the room”.
Fentanyl must be prescribed and is not able to be given under a standing order.
In the tribunal report, when questioned by a clinical nurse specialist the nurse was said to have explained that she attended a teaching session on airway management and had completed her ketamine credentials and “therefore thought she was able to give propofol”.
The tribunal will decide whether the nurse’s actions in administering the drugs compromised the safety of the patients and amounted to professional misconduct.
A decision is expected later this week.