From UK DAILY MAIL
Friday, Jan 04 2013
9PM
17°C
12AM
17°C
5-Day Forecast
Nurse was so incompetent she gave dialysis patient Lucozade instead of glucose drip and couldn't even take a pulse
- Juleth McKenzie didn't know difference between milligrams and micrograms
- Eleven allegations of errors were either admitted or found proved
- She worked at Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
|
A nurse trained to grade five standard of care was so incompetent she couldn't even calculate a patient's heart rate, a disciplinary hearing heard.
Juleth McKenzie was hauled in front of the Nursing and Midwifery Council after she gave a dialysis patient a drink of Lucozade instead of a glucose drip.
The nurse, who worked at Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, didn't know the difference between milligrams and micrograms and checked a patient's temperature instead of blood pressure - despite having qualified eight years ago.
Juleth Deborah Mckenzie was hauled in front of
The Nursing and Midwivery Council after she gave a dialysis patient a
drink of Lucozade instead of a glucose drip
Following an NMC hearing in November last year, at which McKenzie was not present or represented at, her fitness to practise was found impaired by lack of competence.
She was handed a 12 month suspension order, according to the findings of the hearing which have now been released.
The allegations heard by an NMC conduct and competence panel included giving medication to patients she was not authorised to do so, prioritising getting personal details of a patient over stemming bleeding and assessing a patient with Parkinson's disease as being independent and needing no care or support.
She was also accused of attempting to give drugs which had already been given, preparing drugs for oral administration for a patient who was nil by mouth, being unfamiliar with equipment on a resuscitation trolley, making four errors in relation to giving Heparin, giving prescription eye drops when not authorised and giving them to the wrong patient, failing to register patients and putting the wrong hospital number on a patient's wristband and not being aware of the difference between milligrams and micrograms and checking a patient's temperature instead of blood pressure.
McKenzie worked at Bradford Teaching Hospitals
NHS Foundation Trust and was found to not know the difference between
milligrams and micrograms
McKenzie was placed on the Trust's poor performance plan and was diagnosed with dyslexia and poor short-term visual memory
While others said she was a very caring person who wanted to deliver good practice, she was 'out of her depth and lacking in ability' and was described as 'getting muddled and panicked'.
Patients on the dialysis ward had even gone as far as to ask to not be treated by Miss McKenzie.
The panel heard how the job on the renal ward was Miss McKenzie's first substantive post after qualifying in 2005.
She was required to complete a new starters programme which most nurses complete within three months, but after six months concerns remained about her ability as a registered nurse.
By December 2006, she had been placed on the Trust's poor performance plan and was diagnosed with dyslexia and poor short-term visual memory.
McKenzie was redeployed to a less acute area on ward 18 but she continued to make fundamental errors.
She became a healthcare assistant but even in this capacity concern was expressed about her competence and she left the Trust on November 30, 2008.
The Royal College of Nursing's career framework outlines nine levels of nursing. McKenzie was a level 5 nurse, qualified to 'provide general nursing services to defined groups'.
