An experienced Adelaide nurse has been banned from practising for nine months for giving a dangerous drug to the wrong patient and trying to cover it up. Ms Newblack admitted to the tribunal that she wrongfully administered intravenous morphine to the wrong patient on September 13, 2015. She also admitted she failed to report the wrongful administration, falsified records, encouraged two other staff members to stay silent and gave a false or misleading explanation to the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency. Ms Newblack told the tribunal that she had been dealing with a family crisis and agreed to look after the patients of another nurse, who was going on a tea break. One of her new tasks was to administer morphine to the patient, referred to as “BZ”, in cubicle 33. “(Ms Newblack) went alone into cubicle 36 and not cubicle 33. She did not check the patient’s name to ensure that she was dealing with patient BZ,” the tribunal stated. “This was in breach of the medical administration policy of SA Health as applied by Flinders Medical Centre — the policy requires two qualified nurses to be present at the time of administration.
