Repeated Medication Errors Grounds To Fire Nurse, Court Says

Legal Eagle Eye Newsletter for the Nursing Profession

June 1998

  Quick Summary: Even a nurse's single isolated medication error is negligence.

  When a nurse continues to commit medication errors after being counseled on numerous occasions by the employer and after being warned that one more episode of not complying with the employer’s medication administration procedures could result in discharge, an additional medication error is considered employee misconduct justifying termination, the the New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division, ruled. Claim of Mitch, 669 N.Y.S.2d 73 (N.Y. App., 1998).