What would you do if you witnessed a nurse administering an incorrect drug or dosage?
Situational questions are often asked during nursing interviews to see how you respond in certain situations, communicate, and use critical thinking and problem-solving skills. When you have a situation where you witness a nurse administering an incorrect drug or dosage, you must react quickly and stop the nurse from administering the medication. While stopping the nurse, you also want to keep your professional demeanor so as not to alarm the patient if they are awake. Be sure to mention how serious of a situation this is and how this incident would need to be documented in the patient's chart, and the physician would need to be immediately notified (if the drug were given).
"If I witnessed a nurse administering an incorrect drug or dosage, I would quickly stop them while keeping a calm and professional attitude in front of the patient. While the patient has a right to know if they were given the wrong medication or an incorrect dose, I would not want to alarm them until the situation was resolved. I would pull the nurse aside and determine if the medication or dosage was, in fact, incorrect. If it were not the correct dosage or drug, I would have the nurse call the patient's physician or the attending physician and explain what happened and see what the doctor wanted the nurse to do to fix the situation. If the wrong drug or dosage were given, the incident would need to be documented in the patient's chart, and the patient would need to be told what happened."
Community answers are written by other candidates practicing this set. Reading how others frame the same question is one of the fastest ways to sharpen your own.
Anonymous Answer
I would tell them. I would do it in a calm and professional manner and try to find out why, is it a drug they are not familiar with. I have had someone try to give the wrong dose of IV medication and I asked if they had realised. It was one they hadn’t dealt with before, which is why.
Jaymie's Feedback
Good start! Be sure to mention that you would escalate if it were an error that put the patient's health and safety in jeopardy and that you would follow protocol for proper reporting as well.
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