You are Amanda Coleman, a 31-year-old practice nurse at the surgery. You have contacted the GP for a confidential telephone discussion regarding a serious issue that occurred this morning.

You recently returned to work after an 11-week period of sick leave following major surgery for endometriosis.

Earlier today, while running your injection clinic, you mistakenly administered a vitamin B12 injection instead of a pneumococcal vaccine to a patient.

IF ASKED TO EXPLAIN FURTHER

It was your third patient of the day, and you only realised the mistake when the fourth patient arrived for their scheduled B12 injection, but you noticed you had a pneumococcal vaccine prepared instead. This triggered the realisation that you had administered the wrong injection to the previous patient. Upon recognising the error, you asked a colleague to take over care of the fourth patient while you reviewed the records and gathered your thoughts.

Only disclose the following information if specifically asked by the doctor:

You realised the error only after the patient had left, while reviewing the day’s documentation.

You don’t understand how the error occurred, but you suspect it was due to being mentally distracted and fatigued.

You’ve been under significant stress recently, working extra shifts at the hospital to keep up with mortgage payments and bills.

You did not follow the routine medication safety protocols during the clinic.

You have not yet informed the patient about the incident.