Keep in mind that the woman making this statement is executive director of the National Council of State Boards of Nursing. She says the only harm done is that the patient is still in pain. Well, not quite. Because that patient will complain to staff that he is still in pain and the medication is not working. This will be communicated to his attending physician who will either increase his dosage or switch to a more potent analgesic. When this new order is carried out, it may well be too high a dose for this patient, triggering a potentially life-threatening episode. And that's only the beginning of the problems created by these junkies posing as nurses. Can you say "wrongful death?" I knew that you could.
My wife just delivered, and she had an epidural. Initially, due to placement, the effect was not substantial, and she was, shall we say..painful?. The anesthesiologist repositioned, after several additional doses, to finally get the desired effect (no pain). Had the anesthesiologist been delivering saline rather than the local and fentenyl, I KNOW my wife would have grabbed her neck and choked the air out of her throat. So, it is not merely saline, with no harm, the nurse who siphons off the demerol and replaces with saline is in real danger of her life! :-)