Severe hypokalemia: magnesium and ongoing losses

Educational use only. Not clinically reviewed

54-year-old woman for Qualified electrolyte replacement, contributor and loss management, repeated assessment, and handoff. About 60 simulated minutes.

What you will practise

Arrange urgent qualified potassium replacement without waiting for administrative steps.
Address the concurrent magnesium deficit alongside potassium.
Separate review and planning from delivered care for ongoing losses.
Use fresh findings to distinguish partial response, recurrence, and recovery.
Hand off continuing replacement, contributor management, and surveillance.

Review and sources

Not clinically reviewed. No clinician has signed this scenario.

NHS Specialist Pharmacy Service. Hypokalaemia. 2024. https://sps.nhs.uk/articles/hypokalaemia/ Qualified assessment, individualized replacement, monitoring, and underlying-cause review; no dosing table is reproduced.
NHS Specialist Pharmacy Service. Treating acute hypomagnesaemia in adults. 2024. https://sps.nhs.uk/articles/treating-acute-hypomagnesaemia-in-adults/ Concurrent electrolyte assessment, individualized magnesium treatment, and monitoring; no dose, route, or rate is selected by this lesson.
Resuscitation Council UK. 2025 Resuscitation Guidelines: Special circumstances, Hypokalaemia. Severe hypokalemia, ECG change, replacement, magnesium, and continued monitoring. This lesson concerns an awake perfusing adult, not cardiac arrest.
Krogager ML et al. Update on management of hypokalaemia and goals for the lower potassium level in patients with cardiovascular disease: a review in collaboration with the European Society of Cardiology Working Group on Cardiovascular Pharmacotherapy. 2021. doi:10.1093/ehjcvp/pvab038. Potassium, magnesium, contributors, and reassessment; a collaborative review, not a universal replacement target.

Every scenario in this module

Open Sim Lab is an educational simulator, not for clinical use. It is not a clinical decision-support tool, not a dosing calculator, and is not validated for any decision affecting a real patient.