29th September 2021

You are a junior doctor, working in A&E. A patient is brought into assessment with a febrile illness

You are a junior doctor, working in A&E. A patient is brought into assessment with a febrile illness and is currently receiving chemotherapy for the treatment of breast cancer. The triage nurse asks you to prescribe a stat dose of intravenous Tazocin. You check the drug chart and prescribe the dose. Five minutes later, a different nurse, who was due to administer the Tazocin, approaches you to let you know you have made a drug error – and shows where it is clearly written on the chart that the patient is allergic to penicillin. The nurse recognised the error before it was administered to the patient, who therefore came to no harm.

Which of the following statements about this case is most correct?

Select the SINGLE most appropriate option from the list below. Select ONE option only.