Dan is a registered nursing student, day 5 of his third-year placement at MyLocalHospital in Smithplace; his preceptor for today’s very busy morning shift is Registered Nurse Abi. Whilst getting ready for morning medication round, which was progressing unusually slowly, Dan noted preceptor RN Abi putting an Ondansetron wafer and some paracetamol from the medication room into her pocket. RN Abi winks at Dan and states, “God! I need this! I only got home a couple hours ago – I’m dead tired and I’ve got a shocking headache and hangover!!”. She jokingly said, “You better be in charge of me today – I can barely think… Hahaha!” RN Abi looked unwell, and Dan found himself keeping her on track with the daily planner and sometimes reminding RN Abi of each patient; he even pointed out medication discrepancies of those within his scope. Dan was concerned but the morning got busy with their four patients and beds to be made, medication rounds and some dressings to be done before lunch. Prior to the planned wound dressing after lunch, RN Abi and Dan organised some analgesia for patient Mrs Freda Pickleton. A second RN (Bryan) joined Dan and RN Abi in the medication room to sign out some Oxycodone after which Bryan then left to answer a call bell. RN Abi was happy for Dan to witness administration of this analgesia to the patient.
