Blasé about drug administration

The trouble with some tasks and procedures in nursing is that you get too used to them, and errors inevitably set in. No other area is as vulnerable to this as drug administration. A recent report from the National Patient Safety Agency highlighted that dozens of patients are killed every year by drug errors. In 2007, the watchdog received reports from NHS staff of 86 000 mistakes in prescribing or administering medicines, compared with 36 335 errors in 2005. In England and Wales, in 96% of cases the incidents caused low or no harm, but 37 patients died during 2007, and another 63 suffered severe harm.