Nurses, commit not! 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. 1. Medication errors We are all human beings and given that we sometimes forget our tasks. One of the things that nurses commit is disbursing an incorrect quantity of medication or giving out the wrong medication to a patient. This mistake should be much avoided and presence of mind should be incorporated. You can also remember these tips: • Use patient-specific identifiers to make sure the patient is the right person to acquire the specific medication.
DOI: 05/21/2015. Patient is a 52-year-old male control operator who sustained an injury to his low back after lifting 42-pound rolls. Patient is diagnosed with lumbar isthmic spondylolisthesis, lumbar degenerative disc disease, lumbar foraminal stenosis, and lumbar radiculopathy. MRI of the lumbar spine dated 09/01/15 showed L5 to S1 pars defects with mild spondylolisthesis.
Moreover, several studies have been conducted to examine the effects of low nurse staffing on patients hospitalization experiences, as well as its effect on nurse careers in the long run. A recent study by Frith, Anderson, Tseng, and Fong (2012) to explore the relationship between nurse staffing and medication errors, demonstrated that medication errors were higher in a cardiac care unit and non-cardiac care unit when staffing levels were lower. In addition, Frith et al. (2012) pointed out that medication errors increase by 18% for every 20% decrease in nurse staffing below the average due to failure to follow medication administration protocol As mentioned earlier, nurses perform the last and the most important step of medication administration. Thus, having adequate time to assess each patient efficiently and following the medication rights is critical to provide safe patient care and prevent errors.
Before performing any procedure, I would explain what I am going to do and ask for their permission every time. 5. If you were planning the care of this patient write one priority nursing diagnosis, with a patient goal, and interventions, that would address the safety needs of
(Smeulers, Onderwater, Van Zwieten, & Vermeulen, 2014, p. 277) This issue is important to nursing because nurses may be more susceptible to these errors due to both environmental and workload issues faced by nurses while on the
After checking on the patient, it is imperative to report the incident to the staff nurse but for more serious errors, it will be the responsibility of the nursing supervisor, department manager or director, nursing executive, executive administration, the physician, or any combination thereof. It is also the responsibility of the nurse to tell the patient and the patients’ family about the errors occurrence. When things go wrong, we need to plan the disclosure well, have empathy for the patient and family and improve processes and systems to prevent future errors (Myers ,
I will need to observe the medication administration record, Control drugs record, generic & brand names documents and risk assessment documents. This is important in order to avoid errors while dispensing a medication. Knowing all this beforehand will enable me know the type of medication written on the prescription and where to get them from (fridge, cupboard or the shelves). This knowledge will promote and help to maintain independence in the appropriate way to handle prescription.
Also, I should be able to order medication for patient as well as those for the patient to take home for leave or on discharge. The only lack of knowledge is {how to deal with most control drug which I would like to know much in my next placement as an ongoing objective in
Universal patient identifiers can safely enhance efficiency to connect patients to their healthcare records. Although, many patients evade the anguish from adverse events due to a misidentification from the existing patient-matching technology, however misidentification in patients can have inflated financial ramifications to hospital systems. “Denied claims can become a huge waste of time and money for any practice manager; per a recent MGMA Connection article the average cost to rework a claim is $25. When you multiply that cost by dozens of denied claims, it quickly adds up”. (Taufen, A., MA., 2014).
If we question what causes nursing homes medication errors? There are some common problem in the nursing homes. Paul & Perkins (2013), “in most nursing homes, medication is administered when a nurse or nursing staff member completes a “med pass.” A “med pass” is the common term used to describe the process of dispensing medicine to nursing home patients as ordered”. During a med pass, the nurse uses a cart to carry the medicines.
Medication administration is one of the highest risks in health care. The problem with medication administration is that is is very easy to have medication errors occur. It is the role of the nurse to promote health, prevent illness, and achieve optimal recovery by administering medications; and it is this process that can also cause injuries and death to these patients from errors that could have been prevented. Medication errors occur at points of transition in care: admission to the hospital, transfer from department to another, and at discharge home or to another facility (Taylor, Lillis, & LeMone, 2015). While it may be difficult to completely eliminate medication errors, we can examine what causes these errors to occur and find solutions
A medication is considered a blessing when it is prescribed, dispensed and administered correctly, however medication errors are encountered everyday all over the world regardless of the best efforts (1). Medication error is a potential cause of morbidity and mortality of hospitalized patients as reported by the National Coordinating Council for Medication Error Reporting and Prevention (NCC MERP), which showed that approximately 0.1 million people die annually from medical errors that occur in hospitals and the resulting death toll/year due to medication errors is higher than that of work place injuries (2). Furthermore, it was estimated that hospitalized patients are subjected to expensive and sometimes harmful medication error during their
Medication Errors Kendra Jenkins 07/23/2015 Keiser University Florida Abstract With the medication errors of nurses, what they are planning to do means a whole lot. Plenty of times, the media shows the negative sides of nurses and them giving medications wrongfully but almost ignoring the great work that they do over many years. For the most part, nurses are there to help in any way they can.
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
It has been notice that medication error is a problem on our unit. By doing some research it was found out that between 48,000 to 98,000 hospitalized Americans die each year due to medical error. Of this number 7,000 deaths are attributed by medication error. These statistics only report hospitalized based and no other health care settings like ours. As a result of the increase medical error incidents the Florida Legislative passed law mandating all health care professionals to do continuous education courses per on year prevention of medical errors.
MEDICATION ERROR: "A medication error is any preventable event that may cause or lead to inappropriate medication use or patient harm while the medication is in the control of the health care professional, patient, or consumer.(7) Medication errors are known, according to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), which account for approximately 1,000,000 medical errors per year. Those of which, approximately 10% have been resulted a death. Medication Administration Errors (MAE's) is defined as 'any occurring deviation by the physician's medication order as written for patient's medication order chart' it has been broadened to 'mistakes associated with drugs and intravenous solutions which are made during prescribing it, transcription,