Candidate card · Nursing

You are the nurse

A medicine leaflet and an alarming list

Setting: A community nursing review

A patient has read the leaflet for a prescribed medicine and is frightened by its list of possible effects. The nurse can gather concerns and arrange a pharmacist or prescriber discussion; no treatment change is authorised.

Task

  • Explore the concern behind the opening: "This leaflet is terrifying. Why did nobody tell me all of this could happen?"
  • Clarify the specific barrier and acknowledge its effect on the patient.
  • Explain the supplied next steps and respond to this possible question: "Can you promise that the frightening effect will not happen to me?"
  • Check the patient can distinguish what is agreed from what needs confirmation.
A medicine leaflet and an alarming list supplied plan
  • A patient has read the leaflet for a prescribed medicine and is frightened by its list of possible effects. The nurse can gather concerns and arrange a pharmacist or prescriber discussion; no treatment change is authorised.
  • The nurse can record the exact leaflet question and request a pharmacist or prescriber discussion about the individual's medicine.
  • Any reported new symptoms would be assessed through the service's current process; this scenario supplies no symptoms and no dose change.
  • Do not estimate an individual's risk, dismiss the leaflet or instruct a medicine change.
  • Let us write down the exact leaflet term that frightened you and make clear that you are asking about a warning, not reporting a new symptom.
  • I can ask the pharmacist or prescriber to explain that warning in relation to your own prescription. If you describe a new symptom, it needs assessment through the service's usual process rather than an assumption based on the leaflet.

Fictional exam scenario only. Supplied arrangements are not medical guidance for a real patient..