Transition to Australian Nursing Practice

Running Head: TRANSITION TO AUSTRALIAN NURSING PRACTICE
Transition to Australian nursing practice
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

1TRANSITION TO AUSTRALIAN NURSING PRACTICE
Introduction
The assignment deals with the case study of Mrs Melissa Mendez are a 72- year-
old woman admitted to hospital for rheumatoid arthritis flare up. She was prescribed 20mg of
methotrexate to be taken weekly, prednisone 10mg daily, and simvastatin 40 mg at night daily
for her cholesterol. Later she was diagnosed with urinary tract infection and the medical officer
prescribed trimethoprim 200 mg twice daily for three days. A medication error occurred as a
result of drug interaction with the trimethoprim and methotrexate. The care provision was under
registered nurse. The aim of the assignment is to distinguish between the roles and
responsibilities of the Registered Nurse and the nursing student. The differentiation is made
about responsibility and accountability for administrating medication. The assignment will
identify and discuss the Registered Nursing practices that contributed to this medication error.
Lastly, it will discuss and critically analyse the guidelines and practice standards for the
Registered nurse (NMBA, 2017) in relation to the case study and relevant medication policies.
Roles and responsibilities of the Registered Nurse and nursing student
A registered nurse must prevent the harm to the patient by recognising her
responsibilities. Registered nurses are held responsible for the medication errors (Kumaran &
Carney, 2014). They must adhere to the requirements for medication. Registered nurses are
responsible for double checking the medication. Prior to the administration they must conduct
the mandatory drug tests and give to the appropriate ward (Kumaran & Carney, 2014).In regards
to medication management, the registered nurse must verbalise the information about the drug.
He/she must know the right medication, right dose, right time, right patient and right route of
administration (Cashin et al., 2016).

2TRANSITION TO AUSTRALIAN NURSING PRACTICE
On the contrary, the nursing students cannot take any care that is not within the scope of
practice. The nursing students always must ensure direct supervision from a registered nurse for
medication management. Therefore, in case of medication error, the nursing student will not be
accountable or is held responsible for adverse consequences. It is because he/she was supervised
by RN. However, the nursing student is responsible for mandatory hospital-based drug test prior
to its administration like the registered nurse (Cashin et al., 2016). Both the registered nurse and
the student nurse must ensure that they are giving the right patient, the right medication, right
dose, and at the right time through right route. The registered nurse and the student nurse are
both accountable to people in the care as well as to the nursing regulatory authority for
medication error. Both are accountable to the public and their employers for medication errors.
The RNs are accountable for their behaviours, actions and responsibilities inherent in their
profession. They both are also accountable for their actions and decisions, documentation of the
medication administered to the patients (Cashin et al., 2014).
If registered nurse delegates activities to the nursing students that are to be undertaken by
others, the RN remains accountable for the delegation decision. It means the RN is accountable
and responsible for monitoring the performance of the nursing student to prevent medication
error (Cashin et al., 2016). Prior to delegating the nursing tasks to nursing students, the RN must
conduct assessment of the risks and capabilities. The student nurse cannot delegate the RN for
any task or assess the capabilities of other nurses (Keers et al., 2013). Overall it can be concluded
that the RN is more accountable and responsible than the nurse student regards to any aspect of
care and not just medication. RN has more roles than the student nurse including team leader,
administration, unit manager duties in addition to medication administration and management
duties. Unlike the student nurse, the RN undertakes more complex care.