A NURSE who qualified through the Open University has avoided being struck off despite a catalogue of blunders which saw her give a patient 10 TIMES their prescribed dose of medication.

Carole McInnes caused “actual patient harm” after administering the huge dose of medicine in September 2015.

The Crosshouse Hospital nurse also told colleagues to give insulin to the wrong patient, wrongly said a patient had tested positive for MRSA and was unsure how to take manual blood pressure, a hearing was told.

McInnes was employed as a Band 2 nursing assistant between 2008 and February 2015 when she qualified as a Band5 nurse through the Open University.

Following her promotion she began working in various wards in both Crosshouse Hospital and Ayr Hospital.

But the Nursing and Midwifery Council heard that colleagues became concerned about her conduct and competence after a long list of repeated blunders, including leaving a patient alone in a toilet who had been “assessed as a high risk of falls” and repeatedly mixing up medications.

During the 11 month investigation into her misconduct, McInnes was proven to have made 24 errors.

In one of the most serious charges against her McInnes admitted in September 2015, seven months after qualifying as a nurse, she incorrectly administered 100mg of the antibiotic Augmentin to a patient via a nose tube when the patient was supposed to have just 10ml, causing “actual patient harm”.

McInnes said this catastrophic error made her “‘sick to her stomach’ for having harmed a patient and said she “would have to live with that on her conscience.”

The hearing was also told that McInnes was asked by a senior nurse to take a manual blood pressure hearing, but wasn’t sure how to. McInnes denied not knowing how to take manual blood pressure, instead saying she had refused to because she would need to turn on a light and disturb the patient.

In another alarming incident McInnes incorrectly indicated a patient was unresponsive, when in fact “the observations indicated that Patient B was sat up in bed and was alert”.

McInnes said she felt ‘thrown in the deep end’ and had not received “much help” after qualifying.

Despite the errors, McInnes still works for NHS Ayrshire and Arran but has been made subject of a ‘conditions to practice order’ meaning she will have to work under close supervision at all times.

A spokeswoman for NHS Ayrshire & Arran said: “We are committed to delivering safe, high quality patient care, and we have robust systems in place to ensure this is achieved.

“Following concerns about a member of staff, NHS Ayrshire & Arran made a referral to the Nursing & Midwifery Council (NMC). As a result, the NMC has placed a ‘conditions of practice order’ on this person, which means they must meet a number of restrictive conditions in order to continue to safely practice as a registered nurse.

“The member of staff has been working in a non patient facing role since the time of referral and continues to do so at this time.”