Medication Administration Error

Recognizing, acknowledging, and understanding medication safety is important when administering medications. Understanding which medications are high-risk ones, being familiar with the medications being given, remembering the five most important rights when administering medications, communicating clearly, developing checking habits, and reporting the medication errors will lead to safe outcomes for the residents. However, errors do occur from a lack of experience, rushing, distractions, fatigue, doing too many things at once, not double checking, poor communication, and lack of team work. It is not only the staff that commit errors, but also the work environment that contributes to the medication error. Two examples are poor reporting systems

In conclusion, in all healthcare settings medical errors occur but it doesn’t only effect the person responsible: all members of the healthcare team are affected. Pharmacy technicians are also capable of identifying any potential or actual errors and report it before the medication is distributed. Since patient safety is universal among all other healthcare practitioners is it important for them to advocate a safe and healing environment for patient

Haw, C., Stubbs, J. and Dickens, G. (2014). Barriers to the reporting of medication administration errors and near misses: an interview

Administration of medications has become more complex and the process more exacting. About 15% of adverse events occurring in hospitals are related to medication. An estimated 98,000 people die every year from medical errors in U.S. hospitals, and a significant number of those deaths are associated with medication errors (Tzeng, Yin & Schneider, 2013). About 700,000 emergency department visits and 120,000 hospitalizations are due to ADEs annually ("Medication safety basics," August ). These errors occur commonly when the nurse becomes easily distracted and loses focus on the task at hand. Thus, causing him/her to miscalculate the dosage prescribed by the physician. This allows the nurse responsible the

Medications should be prepared for immediate administration to a single patient and not retained for later use due to the risks of contamination, potential instability, potential mix-up with other medications and to maintain security of the medication

Medication errors are defined as faults in drug prescribing, transcribing, dispensing, monitoring, ordering, and/or administration. These errors have significant potential for injuring or even killing a patient. Discussed below is an article that highlights the dangers of inaccurate drug administration.

To create an environment where these errors are a rare occurrence, all healthcare professionals must dedicate themselves to implementing QSEN's six core competencies each and every day. These professionals must also speak up when they see room for improvement in their workplace. Regardless of the healthcare setting or demographic of patients, safe outcomes are the purpose of providing patient-centered care. Since nurses are the largest subgroup of healthcare professionals, their ability to make strides towards improved medication administration is undeniable. As the nursing code of ethics states, nurses have the duty to protect the health and safety of those in their care (Winland-Brown, Lachman, O'Connor Swanson, 2015). By taking extra caution to administer medications correctly, this honorable obligation will always be within

Preventable medical mistakes cause approximately 200,000 deaths around the United States each year. (1) More than 1,000,000 Americans are negatively impacted by medication errors each year caused by inadvertent mistakes in the prescription filling process. With 4 out of 5 adults taking at least 1 medication daily and 1 out of 4 adults taking 5 or more medications daily nationwide, errors like these cost healthcare industry billions of dollars per year.

The guidelines set up within the Nursing Process for Medication Safety are established to prevent errors, to prevent harm, or promote a therapeutic response. It is a nurse 's responsibility to adhere by these guidelines no matter what. However, if a nurse works outside the guidelines that are set for administering medication safely, he/she takes it upon themselves to abide by the legal consequences that the laws have in place for negligent nurses in healthcare. Nurses play the most valuable role when it comes to medication error prevention because nurses serve as the gatekeeper to medication administration. Kim Maryniak said it best when she implied, “As nurses, we are often the last “gatekeeper” in the administration process to prevent medication errors. It is important to take the time needed to ensure patient safety, and to minimize distractions throughout the process.” (Maryniak,

Technological advances have improved patient safety and quality of care. E-prescribing is a technological development that can contribute to patient safety by reducing prescribing errors. The Food and Drug Administration receives about 300 medication errors a month. This number can be reduced if all health care settings are adopters of e-prescribing. Our solution to medication errors is here, it is just a matter of implementing it into our

In a report by the Institute of Medicine (2006), Titled, Preventing Medication Errors, “The committee concludes that there are at least 1.5 million preventable adverse drug events (ADE’s) that occur in the United States each year.” These numbers are astonishing given the number of adults that are taking prescription medications daily. Most of the errors occur during the prescribing and administering steps and during an average hospital stay, a patient can expect to have one medication error occur every day (Institute of Medicine, 2006).

When I read this guideline I realize my hospital don’t even have a Standing Operating Procedure (SOP) on administration of medication. I strongly believe this is one major contributing factor why the medication error took place in my practice area. A key point that I notice in this guideline is that, the nurse who is administrating medication should have knowledge especial the risk involved in this group of drugs and must have had read the guidelines on Medications

Next, you have computerized physician order entry systems. Over the past decade, physicians would annotate in the patient’s chart to order blood draws, urine analysis or physical therapy. With the benefit of an computerized physician order entry system, physicians can enter these orders right into the computer, without worrying if the order was missed from the paper chart. This system as well, eliminate the medical errors caused by poor penmanship. Additionally, it creates a more efficient way to process orders in a timely manner, rather than staff waiting on physicians to clarify illegible orders. Past studies propose that medication errors can be lessened by as much as 55% when a computerized physician order entry system is utilized alone, and by 83% when combined with a clinical decision support system that makes cautions in light of what the doctor orders. Using a computerized physician order entry system, particularly when it is connected to a clinical decision support, can result in improved efficiency and effectiveness of care. A more recent study shows the number of appropriate medication orders increases with the involvement of dosing frequency or dosing levels using a computerized

In the medication administration management process, the prescribers (Physician, Nurse Practitioner, Physician Assistant), orders the medication and treatment for patient. The order is signed and send to the pharmacist. The pharmacist received the order, review, interprets the order, detect therapeutic incompatibilities, dispense by labeling and packing for administration. The last management process is the nurse. The nurse duty is to review the received medication from the pharmacist then administer the medication to the patient. Any errors that occurs in this management can lead to medication error. The ethic code for all these professionals are to provide safety patient care and protect patients from harm. Therefore, this project target prescriber (Physician, Nurse Practitioner, Physician Assistant), pharmacist, and nurses in medication error related to sound-alike and look-alike

Willingness to achieve patient safety with zero medication error need a strategy of standardizes process. After review many article about medication error conclude the following recommendation: