Nursery giving incorrect medication

[Alocin88]

My daughter is 10 months old and has been at nursery for 2 months. She recently had a chest infection and is still on antibiotics.

Yesterday when I dropped her off at nursery I filled in the medication form (which they fill in when they give the medicine) and clearly wrote that she was to have 5ml at 1 pm.

When my husband picked her up this evening he discovered they had given her 2 doses (1pm an 5pm). The nursery manager was not around, but he made it clear to the nursery worker that he saw that he was not happy and that the 5pm dose should not have been given and was unauthorised.

He phoned the doctors and confirmed she should be ok - the consultant was very clear that doses should be a minimum of 6 hours apart - hence nursery only being instructed to give her 1 dose. They are lucky it was only antibiotics and it didn't result in an overdose.

I am absolutely furious - I plan to speak to the nursery manager tomorrow to find out how on earth this happened and what they are going to do to make sure it never happens again. But should I be reporting it to OFSTED or moving her to a different nursery - or is that overkill????

[NCagain]

If you report it to the nursery manager they will have to fill in an incident form and the incident will have to be investigated fully and action taken to ensure a similar incident doesn't happen again.
You would need to give them time to do this investigation, but I imagine you would be within your rights to be told the outcome and future plan.

It is unacceptable to make a medication error IMO.
However, does their policy/procedure include giving medicines to children in their care? Does it specify what training staff have to have in order to do this? Do do people check doses etc?

[Bugsylugs]

Report to manager rest overkill

[SuiGeneris]

Do people need special training to give medicines? Isn't it part and parcel of looking after kids who will from time to time need them?

Def report to manager, ask for an update after they have investigated then re-evaluate.

[breatheslowly]

I'm surprised that they are willing to give medication.

[insancerre]

ask for the complaints procedure
and follow that
the nursery will investigate and report back to you
they will probably change their medicine administration policy, maybe needing a senior member of staff to countersign or they may even decide they ate not going to give any medications at all
I think it is overkill to remove your child or report to ofsted
mistakes do happen and I expect the member of staff will receive a disciplinary

[Alocin88]

Thanks for your replies everyone - I had calmed down a bit by this morning!

I spoke to the nursery manager - she was not aware of the incident and was horrified that it had happened and took it very seriously. Medication is only given by qualified members of staff and they follow the instructions set out by the parents on the medication sheet, this is then signed by the member of staff giving the medication - so this should not be able to happen. She is going to investigate and get back to me. She also said she will start double checking all medication so that this can never happen again.

[teacherlikesapples]

Every centre that I have ever worked in or had anything to do with had a policy that if a member of staff was to ever give medication- it required a witness & you both had to sign off on it.

To prevent this exact scenario. We are not medical professionals, & in a busy chaotic environment it's best to have systems that help ensure important things get done properly.

I would definitely ask for this to be investigated & ask for a follow up as to how it will be prevented. Don't feel bad for asking, this is serious & you may help them develop a better and safer system.