Medication Administration Reflection

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

1.What is your comfort level with medication administration? If your agency/patient population includes IV Therapy, what is your comfort level with this skill? What aspects (6 rights) of medication administration do you find easy to do? What aspects are challenging? What steps can you take to improve your confidence/safety in this aspect of patient care?

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).

The term Nursing Informatics, introduced by Rubenfeld and Scheffer (2015), is described as using technology and/or a computer system to process and communicate data and information across the healthcare system for various reasons (p. 247). For this discussion, I would like to highlight the use of Nursing Informatics in managing the delivery of patient and nursing care. Over the last few years, there have been a few introductions in information technology that serve to improve patient safety. The one that stands out is the implementation of the Medication Barcode Scanner. This process goes beyond the five rights of medication administration and is an extra set of eyes for the nurse. When a patient’s arm band is scanned, the current medication list for the designated timeframe comes into view and the nurse can then scan each medication. The nurse knows she has scanned the correct medication, with the correct dose, and that no changes have been made to the order when she sees a green check populate next to the medication. If there is an issue, a message will alert stating the issue, such as a change in the dose of the medication or that the scanned medication is not recognized. This process has helped to cut down on human errors and improve patient safety in regards to 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.

Medication error (ME) is defined as “improper dosage, delivery of an incorrect medication administration to wrong patient, and inappropriate medication therapy” (XU et al., 2014, p. 286). ME is a long threat standing threat and is common errors in health care setting. It outcome can lead to physically harmful, fatal and prolong hospitalization, and enormously costly. In the mental health setting, some of causes of ME are, similarities of generic and brand names of drug, similarities of container labels and packages, and illegible of handwriting prescription. In this paper, the issue of medication administration error related to sound-alike and look-alike medications will be examines and implement a policy and procedure to prevent this error

Being a nurse is not an easy job because it deals with life. One mistake can turn things upside down. That is why we prepared 3 common mistakes that nurses commit that you should know and that you should be aware of to avoid committing such mishandled and erroneous acts.

According to the Food and Drug Administration, medication error is a failure in the treatment process that occurs very often and posts a threat to patients. It is clearly frequent and is often avoidable but puts risk to patients. As stated in a report of the Institute of Medicine, there is a 1.5 million cases of occurrence of medication error in the United States every year (Westbrook, J.I., Woods, A., Rob, M.I., Dunsmuir, W.T., Day, R.O. (2010). ). This high incidence of medication error should be our primary focus because medication administration has a very big role and is an important part of the nurse’s role. Studies have also shown that interruptions to nurses during administration of medications have been a big factor to an

The prevention of medication errors is a process that should involve all staff in the emergency department. Yes, it is the registered nurse (RN) that administers the medication. However, patient safety is a concern in which all staff can assist. According to Kim and Bates (2013) medication errors represent one of the major concerns in patient safety. The process of medication administration first starts when the RN receives the order. From there the nurse must use the Pxysis dispensing system to obtain the medication. The problems noted in the emergency department (ED) at Florida Hospital Memorial Medical Center (FHMMC) has been distractions while the nurse is obtaining and preparing the medications. The issue is the Pxysis systems in the ED are not in closed rooms, they are located in the open at the nursing stations. This issue allows distractions while the nurse is obtaining the medications from the Pxysis.

As the number of medication errors continues to rise daily, I believe the need for continuous advocacy at government level for safer medication administration policies and systems are in desperate need. And who better than nurses to advocate for these needs. Since nurses are in an ideal position to influence and demand change, I would collaborate with other fellow nurses to call, set up meetings or writing letters to government officials addressing the prevalence and effects of medication errors. I would also request for safer medication administration system or software that are user friendly. Lastly I would reach out to the Board of Nursing about nurse’s license revocation after an error is committed and request for lesser punishment instead

Tolicia, I agree that getting patients involved in all aspects of their care would greatly reduce the number of medication errors. If a patient knows what their medication looks like, what time they take it, what route it is administered, and what it is for, then this will protect them from receiving the wrong medication. Encouraging patients to get involved in their care would also present more opportunities for patient education and it would allow the patient to ask any questions they may have about their condition, and to mention any side effects or new problems they are experiencing. Urging patients to speak up about their medication administration could also allow the doctors and nurses extra opportunitites to evaluate if the medication

Accountability for delivery of patient safety improvement targets with relation to medication errors. Janine was an enthusiastic and engaging speaker, and her passion for reducing medication error and the involvement of her junior doctors was evident. She spoke about the Juniors’ Educational Drug Initiative (JEDI) and discussed the ‘carrot and stick’ as a simple model to describe motivation. Her hypothesis is that currently in the NHS, there are many more sticks than carrots, leading to cynicism and disengagement with processes of change. She believes lack of junior engagement is a key reason for the failure of safety initiatives. Her project explores whether positive reinforcement and strong junior engagement at the outset could be successful.

Nurses are responsible for the care of the patient as a whole. Evidence based practices has encouraged patient centered care more in depth according to Jarvis (2014). A nurse’s responsibility is to provide safe practices to our patients. Developmental factors have proven to cause an effect on men, women, and children. Pharmacokinetics furthermore explains the medication action as it enters the body, how it’s metabolize, and then exits the body according to Jarvis (2014). National Patient Safety Agency monitored drug errors (NPSA) later implemented the 10’R’s. These components will change the way nurses deliver patient care.

Härkänen, M., Voutilainen, A., Turunen, E., & Vehviläinen-Julkunen, K. (2016). Systematic review and meta-analysis of educational interventions designed to improve medication administration skills and safety of registered nurses. Nurse Education Today, 41, 36–43. doi:10.1016/j.nedt.2016.03.017

This assignment is about interviewing and discussing with a pharmacist methods to report medication errors per facility’s policy and ways to encourage nurses to report medication errors promptly. This was a face-to-face interview with pharmacist BB at work. He is a qualified professional pharmacist and appropriate for this assignment.