Pros And Cons Of Medication Errors

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

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.

Partnership in health care is important in order to provide the best care to the patients, especially with the involvement of the patient, who is the center of this joint partnership. In the perspective of medicines management both professionals have the same goal of assuring that the treatment of patient containing pharmacology interventions is safe and effective. This essay will look at the main principles supporting supplementary prescribing, the clinical management plan, the partnership and the implementation of supplementary prescribing.

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

Yvonne, your post was extremely intriguing to me as a community health department is not an environment I have had the privilege of experiencing. Interestingly, the utilization of computerized order entry does not prevent the prescriber from ordering an incorrect medication dose or the wrong drug (Lapane, Waring, Dube’, & Schneider, 2011). Do the facility employ process to assure nurses are checking the medication in order to avoid the administration of an incorrect drug or dosage?

In the world today registered nurses are expected to know about the drugs they administer, their indications, contradictions and adverse effects and correct doses. Any RN can rattle off the correct procedure for safe drug administration. Although, despite this knowledge the incidence of drug errors remain high (Tindale, 2007). A common drug error that occurs is between Amphetamine, which is a CNS stimulant and Propranolol, which is a beta blocker.

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.

Nursing assistants have long been the heartbeat of assisted living, long-term care and rehabilitation facilities alike. Over time, their roles in these settings have evolved to accommodate the needs of the RNs/LPNs they work alongside and the cliental they care for. In 2001, the National Council of State Boards of Nursing (NCSBN) expanded the capacity of NAs in an effort to facilitate safer staffing ratios. This provision allowed those in good standing with sufficient experience to become medication-certified barring successful completion of a training course and exam. The aim of this designation was not to replace the RN/LPN but to create a functional care partner. While this collaboration is an endeavor to improve patient outcomes, there are caveats. The purpose of this paper is to narrowly examine the usefulness of this role and

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.

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.

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

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

This reflective paper imposes that nurses, including me, need to be able to make drug calculations and correct medication administration. A medication error serves as leading medical cause of patient’s safety or even its life. As a result, correct medication administration should be a focus of nursing education. Nursing students including myself have difficulty learning math calculation skills which relate to medication. Evidence-based resources/books are available to prevent medication error, strategies to be used to ensure correct medication administration and high alert medication require extra caution when administering can improve the student nurse’s ability to think analytically and solve medication administration problems. The Nursing student must be taught math calculation for medication administration often. Adequate practice with real problem solving can effectively reinforce these skills and provide the

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.