Improper Verification In my first article, the report uses the word nurses implying that more than one nurse made a serious medication error that could have easily been prevented easily from at least one of their patients. The first patient affected was pregnant with twins and was placed on bedrest within the hospital. The woman’s physician had ordered progesterone suppositories to stop premature labor but instead was given Prostin, which is a drug given to women after having a miscarriage to help the body expel the dead fetus. Several hours after this medication error occurred, the nurses weren’t any more cautious because the same medication error happened with another patient that had been put on strict bedrest. After being given the wrong …show more content…
There are several ways these errors could have been prevented. The nurses should have done three different checks on the drugs with the medication administration record (MAR) and the patient. If they had done those checks properly, then the error could have been caught early. According to the report, the problem with the situation with the second patient was the doctor’s handwriting on the prescription. If the doctors would have made make sure their handwriting iwas legible, thanthen the second patient in this sad case may not have been a victim at all. If the nurses had done all their checks, these patients would have had even more protection again the medication error. Another step the nurses could have taken to protect their patients would have been to question the prescription ordered by the physician. If the nurses had done all their checks they would have realized the medication they pulled would not have been prescribed for patients with healthy fetuses. The fact that this medication error happened more than once, only a few hours apart, shows several levels of negligence on the nurses’ part. This story does not state who found or reported the error or what the outcome was for the nurses. It does state that both twins died and the second baby was 11 months old at the time the story was written and was still in the hospital with severe health issues. (Patel,