A NURSE who almost poisoned a patient by giving him medication which should have been rubbed into his legs has been suspended for a year.

Deirdre Halpin gave the patient potassium permanganate tablet to swallow and later admitted: "I could have killed him."

She was on an unsupervised drugs round at the Royal South Hants Hospital in Southampton when the incident happened, the Nursing and Midwifery Council heard.

His mouth began burning because she should have dissolved it in water and applied it to his skin.

Halpin was fired after an investigation in October 2013 revealed she was responsible for a series of blunders.

Two student nurses were horrified to see Halpin administering the tablet orally but she failed to reporting the incident after one pointed out the mistake.

Halpin was a newly qualified nurse and accepted during an investigation meeting on August 15, 2013 that she had made the errors.

During a disciplinary meeting the nurse answered questions about the outcome of her actions by saying: "I could have killed him."

When asked why she did not report the incident she said she had thought it would just "go away" before realising what she had done and panicking and wanting "to get out of my own skin".

She said it was the first time she had administered potassium permanganate but did not seek additional guidance from any of the three pharmacy staff on the ward at the time.

Julian Weinberg, panel chair said: "Miss Halpin failed to work within the limits of her competence and incorrectly administered medication to the patient when she was fully aware that she was not to undertake drug rounds unsupervised.

"Further, having undertaken an unsupervised drug round, she failed to report the serious incident, which could have had a serious outcome.

"The panel found that Miss Halpin’s failings were serious and fell significantly short of the conduct and standards expected of a nurse and therefore amounted to misconduct."