Medication Errors Literature Review

Reporting medication errors is beneficial to improve the learning process for nurses. The factors of workload, ineffective communication, and distraction all contribute to medication errors (Sears et al., 2013). Nurses often excuse the behavior of colleagues when a medication error occurs, or nurses will pass the buck to a senior nurse to report the medication error (Haw, Stubbs and Dickens, 2014). Implementing a no blame policy for reporting medication errors, and providing nurses with the knowledge and training to report medication errors will result in an increase of medication errors reported.

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

The nursing profession entails many responsibilities that range from providing emotional support to administering medications that could result in death for those receiving care. Approximately 40% of a nurse's day consists of passing medication, a duty that sets their level of liability above many other healthcare professions (McCuistion, Vuljoin-DiMaggio, Winton, Yeager, & Kee, 2018). Despite today's advances in technology and nursing education, the frequency of medication errors is still staggering. To ensure that the benefits of nursing outweigh the risks, nurses look to the Quality and Safety Education for Nurses (QSEN) six core competencies for guidance. These competencies include quality improvement, safety, informatics, teamwork and collaboration, evidence-based practice, and patient-centered care (Cronenwett et al., 2007). Each competency has its own knowledge, skills, and attitudes that when applied to medication administration, help warrant the best results.

Transitions in care, such as admission to and discharge from the hospital, put patients at risk for errors due to poor communication and inadvertent information loss (1–5). One discrepancy does not necessarily mean an error. In fact, most discrepancies are due to adapting chronic medication to the patient’s newly diagnosed condition, or because the examinations and/or interventions performed could interfere with their usual medication. Medication discrepancies, established as unexplained differences among documented drug regimens at the interfaces of care1 (admission, transfer, and discharge) are highly prevalent. Some are intended therapeutic modifications, but others are unintentional and clinically unjustified. Prior studies suggest that

A Medication error is defined as any preventable event that may cause or lead to inappropriate medication use or patient harm while the medication is under the control of the health care professional, patient, or consume. Therefore, any form of error that arrives within the healthcare system is deemed unacceptable. Now by understanding what a medication error entails, nurses are better able to place emphasis on how to prevent medication errors.

Pharmacy technicians work under the supervision of a pharmacist helping prepare and give out medications. It is very crucial for a pharmacy technician to be aware of their work at all times and check their work more than once. Pharmacy technicians need to ensure any medication they have prepared has been done properly, if not that could potentially harm the patients. Pharmacist trust their technicians will always follow system-based processes and provide an extra layer of safety. Working as a pharmacy technician it is important to communicate with the pharmacist and address any questions or concerns, not asking a simple question could cost the life of a patient.

Technology is a massive part of our society today and it is continuously changing. It can help solve issues and increase sufficiency. One safety issue that technology can help improve is medication administration errors that occur in hospitals and other health care settings. A medication administration error is defined as any preventable event that could possibly result in unsuitable medication use or harm to the patient while the health care professional is in control of the medication. The most common type of medical error is medication errors. Medication administration errors happen when the seven rights of medication administration are not checked; these include the right patient, the right drug, the right dose, the right time, the

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).

Before I discus on the potential action plans if at all there is reoccurrences on the similar incident, I would like to stress on that such incidence should not had taken place at all. I strongly believe that all the nurses including me had learned a lot from this incident and we do not wish to compromise another patient’s life by repeating the same error again. However, medication error is not something new in healthcare service. Researchers had identified medication error is the high numbers of incidents involving nursing practice. Therefore, we still need to plan as there is a saying ‘if we fail to plan then we are planning to fail’. A proper and well designed organizational system should be in place for the process of administration of

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

In this paper, computerized physician order entry (CPOE) systems will be discussed. The reduction of medication errors as a result of CPOE will be addressed, as well as, the possible errors or problems that it can still cause. The ease of use and how clinician input affects the efficiency, usability and safety will be included. Lastly, possible solutions to the problems and issues that arise from CPOE will also be provided. CPOE systems are very effective at reducing errors and assist with workflow. However, vigilance from IT and nursing informatics is necessary.

Policy brief provide evidence-based practice summary of a selection problem including significance of the issue and provide preventable suggestions (CDC, 2017). Never events are serious preventable errors that affect the patient safety, and the organization try to zero level of mistake by implement evidence-based practice in healthcare institution (NHS, 2010).

According to Julia Wood (2004), “communication is a systemic process in which individuals interact with and through symbols to create and interpret meanings. However, Sheppard (1993) suggests that, in the nurse–patient relationship, communication involves more than the transmission of information; it also involves transmitting feelings, recognizing these feelings and letting the patient know that their feelings have been recognized (M, 1993)”. It is a two way process. The patient conveys their fears and concerns to their nurse and helps them make a correct nursing diagnosis. An excellent communication skill between nurses and patients is essential for the successful outcome of individualized nursing care of each patient. The ability to communicate

Interpersonal skills and effective communication among healthcare professionals are at the core of quality patient care. Interpersonal skills are defined by Rungapadiachy (1999, p.193) as “those skills which one needs in order to communicate effectively with another person or a group of people”. It includes verbal communication, non-verbal communication, listening skills, negotiation, problem-solving, decision-making, and assertiveness (Skills You Need, n.d.). The National Joint Committee for the Communicative Needs of Persons with Severe Disabilities (1991) defined communication as, “Any act by which one person gives to or receives from another person, information about that person 's needs, desires, perceptions, knowledge, or affective states.

Safe medication administration is a big aspect of nursing care, because if medications aren’t given safely, then it can lead to some serious adverse effects to the patients. There are many things that can go wrong, and that’s why nurses have to be very careful when handling and giving medications. Nurses can make mistakes, and give the wrong med, give it to the wrong person, or even give too much or too little of the drug. Careful medication administration can lead to not making big mistakes that can lead to hurting others.