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Pros And Cons Of Medication Errors

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Preventatives for Medication Errors Administration of medications has become more complex and the process more exacting. About 15% of adverse events occurring in hospitals are related to medication. An estimated 98,000 people die every year from medical errors in U.S. hospitals, and a significant number of those deaths are associated with medication errors (Tzeng, Yin & Schneider, 2013). About 700,000 emergency department visits and 120,000 hospitalizations are due to ADEs annually ("Medication safety basics," August ). These errors occur commonly when the nurse becomes easily distracted and loses focus on the task at hand. Thus, causing him/her to miscalculate the dosage prescribed by the physician. This allows the nurse responsible the …show more content…

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 , …show more content…

Nurses are most involved in medication administration, shortly before any adverse drug events may emerge. They also have the unique role of detecting and preventing errors that occurred in the stages of prescribing, transcribing, and dispensing. Since adverse drug events most often occur in the prescription, transcription, and/or administration stages, promoting patient safety should have multi-factorial approaches that involve more than direct-care nursing staff. Also, human factors are the primary underlying cause of medication errors. Therefore, professional education and clinical in-services with individual and system focuses on patient safety issues are essential (Tzeng, Yin & Schneider,

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This is something that needs to be looked into more and more monitoring of how the nurses are able to treat their patients. There has been too many episodes where nurses just didn’t want to do their job like give meds when they were suppose to be administered or reporting when patients were in extreme

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Alternatively, in an emergency, urgent and acute prescribing circumstances, supplementary prescribing is not suitable because the clinical management plan needed to be agreed in-between Independent Prescriber, Supplementary Prescriber and the patient before prescribing (DOH, 2006). However, Nuttall and Rutt-Howard (2011) argued that for long term conditions, non-medical prescribers are able to make an independent prescribing decision. Additionally, they stated that for long term conditions, patients are typical, predictable and their response to treatment is straightforward. But they also suggested that if a patient is presented with a condition in which they are competent to prescribe, then non-medical prescribers should be confident and competent to treat patient. ). Nuttall and Rutt-Howard (2011) states that nurses, midwives and pharmacists are capable to prescribe independently, but allied health professionals are able to prescribe only as a supplementary prescribing who needs a CMP to be in place for the patient they want to prescribe.

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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.

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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.

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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. References Haw, C., Stubbs, J. and Dickens, G. (2014).

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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

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Effective communication is crucial in ensuring that patient care is coordinated and safe. This semester, I witnessed an incident where a patient's medication was missed because the communication between the physician and the nurse was unclear. The nurse assumed that the physician had ordered the medication, but the physician thought the nurse had already given it. This resulted in the patient not receiving the medication on time, which could have led to complications. This experience reinforced the importance of clear and effective communication among healthcare

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Medication Errors in Healthcare 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.

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• Medical staff have proper knowledge to deal with medical abbreviations written on medicine and its consumption process. • They have proper knowledge of medicine storing process and also know the safety rules related to medicine suggestion to patient. There are procedures to follow for administering medication, by which there is less probability of mistakes by the nurses (Koppel, Wetterneck, Telles, & Karsh, 2008). Although lot of other types of errors occur , my case study focuses on only medication errors and related legal & ethical implications. Ethical implications will focus on Battery, error disclosure, maleficence/non-maleficence, erosion of trust and impact on quality care etc.

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Patient safety is a vital part of our health care system; it helps define quality health care. A challenging issue is keeping our patients safe because medical errors in the workplace can and they do happen. Who is responsible for taking proper measurers to ensure patient safety? Is it the nurses, physicians, administrators, society or patients themselves? All these entities are responsible for making sure the patient has the safest possible outcome.

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Medication errors are a major preventable health issue in hospitals, extended care facilities, and home health agencies. Errors in medication administration can contribute to allergic reactions, hospital acquired disease or disability, and possibly even death. As part of the Quality and Safety Education for Nurses (QSEN) initiative, there are several competency areas for nurses to focus on to better patient care. In regards to medication errors, informatics and teamwork are essential practices to ensure medication is given with the utmost regard for the eventual health of the individual receiving the treatment. Teamwork and informatics are linked for the purpose of avoiding medication errors because medications are prescribed by doctors, administered

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Medication use is potentially dangerous. Polypharmacy is increasing, and makes it harder to keep track of side effects and interactions and of potentially inappropriate drug combinations. “The risk of serious consequences, hospitalization, and death due to medication errors increases with patients’ age and number of medications (Scand J Prim Health Care, 2012)”. For example, the GP is supposed to monitor the patient's regular medication, but does not always do so. Lack of monitoring and keeping track of patients’ medication use is a main cause when a patient is given inappropriate drugs.

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According to the World Health Organization (2004) “Patient safety is the absence of preventable harm to a patient during the process of healthcare”. It highlights the importance of safety in healthcare through the avoidance, curtailment, reporting and investigation of medical errors that often lead to adverse effects. An adverse effect can be said to be an injury which result from or is contributed to by medical management thereby prolonging hospitalization, treatment, monitoring and resulting in disability at the time of care and/or discharge. In healthcare, human error can be considered in two ways: the system and the person approach. The person approach focuses on procedural violations and fallacy of nurses, doctors, pharmacist and all

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