A nurse with more than 30 years’ experience has been handed a 12-month conditions of practice order after admitting to giving the wrong medication to patients by mixing up their prescription drugs.

Nicola Grace Cornthwaite has been a registered nurse since October 1989, but made the grave mistakes over a 16 month period between May 2019 and September 2020, while working as an agency nurse across three different Lancashire trusts.

A Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) misconduct hearing held at the beginning of December was told that on October 6, 2020, a referral was made from Medcas Healthcare Agency regarding Mrs Cornthwaite, detailing a number of incidents relating to medication administration and record keeping concerns.

A report to the NMC stated: “On May 1, 2019, whilst working at the Lancashire Teaching Hospitals Trust, Mrs Cornthwaite administered Gabapentin to Patient A when it was not prescribed.

“When the drug charts were checked, it was discovered that Mrs Cornthwaite had given Patient A medication that had been prescribed for Patient B who was in the next bed.

“Mrs Cornthwaite took full responsibility for her errors. She completed a reflective statement indicating steps she would take to ensure it would not happen again.”

However, some five months later, on October 15, while working at Blackpool Victoria Hospital, she failed to administer two drugs to Patient B who was suffering from acute bleeding.

These two drugs were not stock items and although Mrs Cornthwaite recorded that the drugs were not available on three separate occasions during the shift, she made no attempt to order the medication from the pharmacy or escalate it with a senior member of staff.

The NMC heard that again, she produced a reflective statement following the incident.

Less than three months later, on January 21, 2020, Mrs Cornthwaite made further mistakes at the same hospital, administering an antihistamine to Patient F without signing for it in the drug chart.

The NMC report went on: “Patient F's drug chart had been sent to the pharmacy to obtain the prescribed drug and was unavailable to sign.

“Therefore, Mrs Cornthwaite used a drug from another patient's prescription in the meantime. This resulted in another nurse administering the same drug to Patient F and therefore he received a double dose.”

In July 2020, Mrs Cornthwaite failed to administer prescribed antibiotics to a Patient C, something she admitted to the staff nurse when she realised her error. No patient was harmed but once again she was asked to complete a reflective statement.

The final incident took place on September 2, 2020, while she was working at the Lancashire Teaching Hospitals Trust.

It was heard that on this occasion Mrs Cornthwaite failed to administer an anti-epileptic medication to a patient who was admitted in an ‘epileptic state’.

The NMC report stated: “This medication cannot be missed especially as the patient was a known epileptic and they could have suffered further seizures. The prescription chart had 'CRITICAL MEDICINE' next to the name of the drug.

“Another nurse found the medication in the ward's medicine trolley and administered it immediately.

“Witness one, director of clinical governance at Medacs Global stated in her evidence: ‘I consider this incident to be very serious because Patient D was in a state of epilepticus, so failing to administer the required medication is concerning and the patient could have been at risk of death’.”

Luckily, there was no patient harm and Mrs Cornthwaite completed another reflective statement.

The misconduct panel were told that despite reflecting on her mistakes numerous times, she continued to make the errors over a 16-month period, and after admitting to the five charges her fitness to practise was deemed impaired and a 12-month conditions of practice order was made.

The report went on: “Mrs Cornthwaite's actions put patients at unwarranted risk of harm.

“She failed to administer medication correctly and made numerous record-keeping errors.

“She is an experienced nurse of over 30 years, and many of the concerns relate to basic requirements for safe practice.

“These incidents occurred over a period of 16 months during which time Mrs Cornthwaite provided reflections of the incidents and completed further relevant medication refresher training.

“The errors continued notwithstanding this further training and reflection.

“Mrs Cornthwaite brought the profession into disrepute and has breached fundamental tenets of the profession by failing to provide the appropriate level of care to patients.”