B.C. intensive care nurse suspended for falling asleep

A B.C. nurse who failed to give patients their medication and fell asleep while working in an intensive care unit has been suspended for a week.

According to an Apr. 21 B.C. College of Nurses and Midwives decision, registered nurse Eskhander Balawag made multiple mistakes while working in intensive care which included giving a patient the wrong medication and ignoring patient alarms.

The nursing regulator says between November 2020 and July 2021 committed more than a dozen infractions.

Balawag's behaviour includes, "not checking blood glucose levels when required, not following closed-loop medication administration procedures, not administering medications as required, administering the wrong dose of a medication, providing incomplete physical assessments, not initiating physician orders, not documenting in a complete and timely manner or at all, falling asleep while on duty and failing to respond to patient alarms, not following facility policy, procedures, or guidelines, and breaching an interim undertaking wherein he promised not to work night shifts."

Balawag, who works at the Surrey Memorial Hospital, has had conditions put on his licence previously and has been practicing with conditions since October 2021. The College doesn't say why Balawag had conditions placed on his licence.

Balawag signed a consent agreement admitting to his behaviour.

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The regulator suspended him for one week and he will have to be under direct supervision for two weeks. He'll then be under a mentorship for six months.

He will also have to take a critical care program if he wants to return to intensive care and complete courses on documentation, health assessments, critical thinking, medication administration, critical care nursing and communication.

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The nursing regulator says it is satisfied that the terms will protect the public.

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