A nurse at a children’s hospital has had workplace restrictions imposed on her after malpractice.
Lynnda Webster was found to have administered medication erroneously at Royal Aberdeen Children’s Hospital’s high dependency unit.
As a result, she has had an impaired fitness to practise order imposed on her for nine months.
In February 2018 Ms Webster administered the drug Levtiracetam to a patient by ingestion instead of infusion, and also gave the patient 120mg of paracetamol instead of 90mg.
In May 2018 she signed a patient’s index card stating Cefotaxime had been given at 6pm when it had not, and countersigned this the next day with a colleague’s initials.
Later that month, and in breach of restrictions imposed on her by the hospital, Ms Webster carried out medication checks and a set of observations and readings on a patient without being supervised.
A suspension order was originally imposed for a period of three months by the Nursing and Midwifery Council’s Conduct and Competence Committee in November 2020.
The original panel found that “vulnerable patients were put at unwarranted risk of harm.”
It added: “Your misconduct breached a fundamental tenet of the nursing profession and therefore brought the reputation of the profession into disrepute.
“The panel found that your dishonesty was serial, multi-faceted and extended over a considerable period of time.
“It concluded that while the drug errors were remediable, the dishonesty in this case was difficult to remediate.
“It was satisfied that confidence in the nursing profession would be undermined if its regulator did not find charges relating to dishonesty extremely serious.”
While the original panel stated that Ms Webster had not acknowledged the impact her actions might have had on patients and their families, a panel reviewing the suspension order last week said she had demonstrated that she fully understands the seriousness of her misconduct and its wider impact.
However, the panel stated that as she has not had the opportunity to demonstrate any improvement in the administration of medication in a clinical setting, “a finding of continuing impairment is necessary on the grounds of public protection.”
As a result, she will be required to work under conditions of practise, which entail strict supervision, for nine months from March 24.
Ms Webster has since undertaken a medication administration course.