Assignment task: You are working in a medical ward. You have been allocated four patients. One of them Mr Thomas is a 59-year-old male who is admitted with community-acquired pneumonia and is prescribed IV antibiotic Ceftriaxone 1g once daily. You go and get the medication checked, and an RN signs to acknowledge the check of the medication. She does not ask about allergies. You perform the '5 rights' of medication administration. Mr Thomas had a red allergy band. He states he might be allergic to cephalosporins, but not the medication that is being prepared. He is not sure so has not said anything before. You administer the Ceftriaxone and Mr Thomas has an anaphylactic reaction.
Answer the following questions based on the case study.
Q1. Should the enrolled nurse have administered the medication? Has administering this medication used the "5 rights" effectively?
Q2. What is a cephalosporin? Is it the same as ceftriaxone? What should the enrolled nurse have done when the patient stated he was allergic to cephalosporin?
Q3. Explain the pharmacodynamics of cephalosporin.
Q4. In this scenario, the enrolled nurse has administered a medication to which the patient is allergic. The patientâ€TMs anaphylaxis is a direct result of the actions of the nurse. What should the enrolled nurse do to intervene and respond to anaphylaxis?
Q5. Consider the Enrolled nurse standards for practice, International Council of Nurses Code of ethics for nurses and the Code of professional conduct for nurses (Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia) and codes of practice, how do they apply to this situation?