Search Assignment Sample For Ireland Students

For information and reference only – not to be submitted as your own work. This is a model-answer extract showing structure, depth and referencing. The patient is fictional and the content is educational guidance, not clinical advice.

This extract answers the type of task set in the NURS202 Pharmacology and Medicines Management case study at Hibernia College. It shows one way to structure a patient-based answer across the three sections of the brief. For the planning logic behind Section 3, read our guide to a patient education plan for discharge.

Introduction and patient choice

Mrs A is a 72-year-old woman admitted to a medical ward with new-onset atrial fibrillation (AF). She has moderate rheumatic mitral stenosis, hypertension and raised cholesterol. Her usual medicines are ramipril and atorvastatin. Her records show a penicillin allergy (rash). Warfarin has been started, and she will go home in two days.

Warfarin is used here because direct oral anticoagulants are not recommended in AF with moderate to severe mitral stenosis, where a vitamin K antagonist remains the choice (Hindricks et al., 2021). The usual INR target is 2.0 to 3.0, set by the prescriber. Warfarin is a high-risk medicine because small errors can cause serious harm (Donaldson et al., 2017).

Section 1: the nurse’s role in medication safety

The registered nurse is accountable for every medicine they administer. NMBI (2020) expects the nurse to confirm a valid, legible prescription, verify the patient’s identity, check allergy status and be satisfied that the dose, route and timing are appropriate before giving a drug. Where the nurse is unsure, they should not proceed until the doubt is resolved.

For Mrs A, the nurse checks the most recent INR before each warfarin dose, because the dose may change daily in the first days. A missing result is a reason to pause and ask the prescriber, not to give the usual dose. Near misses, such as a dose almost given without an INR, should be reported, as they show where the system is weak (Reason, 2000).

Allergies

Allergy status is confirmed on admission and checked at every administration. Mrs A’s penicillin allergy is recorded on the prescription chart and wristband. This matters if she develops a chest infection, as the prescriber must choose an antibiotic that is safe for her, and the choice may also affect her INR.

Drug-drug and drug-food interactions

The table lists the main interactions the nurse should recognise for this patient. It is not a full list. Prescribers and pharmacists make the final decision using the product information and an up-to-date formulary.

Section 2: investigating and documenting a medication error

Suppose a nurse gives 5 mg of warfarin when the prescriber had reduced the dose to 3 mg after an INR of 3.8. The nurse’s first duty is to the patient. The nurse assesses for bleeding, informs the doctor at once and carries out monitoring and any treatment the doctor orders. The nurse in charge is told.

The HSE Incident Management Framework (HSE, 2020) expects the incident to be reported on NIMS as soon as practicable and within one working day of its occurrence. The incident is then categorised and reviewed in proportion to its severity. A Category 2 incident, for example, falls under a concise review, which may be commissioned by the local accountable officer. The review looks at systems, such as chart design and communication of dose changes, before individuals.

Open disclosure is part of the response. The framework describes open and honest communication with the patient, starting ideally within 24 to 48 hours of the incident occurring or becoming known (HSE, 2020). The Patient Safety (Notifiable Incidents and Open Disclosure) Act 2023 places statutory duties on providers for defined incidents. Documentation in the clinical record must be factual, timed and signed, and must not speculate (NMBI, 2025).

Legal framework

Warfarin is a prescription-only medicine, so it is supplied and administered only under a valid prescription in line with the Medicinal Products (Prescription and Control of Supply) Regulations 2003 (Government of Ireland, 2003). Controlled drugs, such as morphine-based analgesics, fall under the Misuse of Drugs Regulations 2017, which set requirements for prescriptions and for who may administer them (Government of Ireland, 2017). Mrs A is not prescribed a controlled drug, but the same accountability applies.

Section 3: patient education plan for discharge

Education starts at the beginning of the stay, not on the day of discharge. The nurse assesses what Mrs A already knows, her health literacy and any barriers, such as vision or worries about bleeding. Teach-back, where the patient explains the advice in her own words, helps check understanding (Talevski et al., 2020). A relative may join the sessions if she agrees.

On discharge, Mrs A should know whom to contact. Her named contacts are the anticoagulation clinic or GP for INR and dosing questions, her community pharmacist for advice on over-the-counter products, the ward for questions about the hospital stay, and the out-of-hours GP service when the surgery is closed. For severe bleeding, a head injury or sudden weakness, she should call 112 or 999.

The nurse confirms that the INR appointment is booked, that Mrs A has enough supply and a written plan, and that her GP receives the discharge summary. The extract stops here; a full answer would add an evaluation of the plan and a conclusion.

Students who want the same level of structure for their own patient can look at our nursing assignment help page, or see how we handle case study writing support for case-based tasks.

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References

• Donaldson, L.J., Kelley, E.T., Dhingra-Kumar, N., Kieny, M.-P. and Sheikh, A. (2017) ‘Medication Without Harm: WHO’s Third Global Patient Safety Challenge’, The Lancet, 389(10080), pp. 1680-1681.
• Government of Ireland (2003) Medicinal Products (Prescription and Control of Supply) Regulations 2003 (S.I. No. 540 of 2003). Available at: https://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/2003/si/540 (Accessed: 20 October 2026).
• Government of Ireland (2017) Misuse of Drugs Regulations 2017 (S.I. No. 173 of 2017). Available at: https://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/2017/si/173/made/en/print (Accessed: 20 October 2026).
• Health Service Executive (2020) Incident Management Framework 2020. Dublin: HSE. Available at: https://www.hse.ie/eng/about/who/nqpsd/qps-incident-management/incident-management/hse-2020-incident-management-framework-guidance.pdf (Accessed: 20 October 2026).
• Hindricks, G. et al. (2021) ‘2020 ESC Guidelines for the diagnosis and management of atrial fibrillation developed in collaboration with the European Association for Cardio-Thoracic Surgery (EACTS)’, European Heart Journal, 42(5), pp. 373-498. doi:10.1093/eurheartj/ehaa612.
• Nursing and Midwifery Board of Ireland (2020) Guidance for Registered Nurses and Midwives on Medication Administration. Dublin: NMBI. Available at: https://www.nmbi.ie/Standards-Guidance/Medicines-Management (Accessed: 20 October 2026).
• Nursing and Midwifery Board of Ireland (2025) Code of Professional Conduct and Ethics for Registered Nurses and Registered Midwives. Dublin: NMBI.
• Reason, J. (2000) ‘Human error: models and management’, BMJ, 320(7237), pp. 768-770.
• Talevski, J., Wong Shee, A., Rasmussen, B., Kemp, G. and Beauchamp, A. (2020) ‘Teach-back: a systematic review of implementation and impacts’, PLoS ONE, 15(4), e0231350.