Posted: March 26th, 2021

Medication Errors

Medication Errors

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Medication Errors
Introduction
Medication errors are common in health care facilities among nurses and nursing students. According to Choi and Kim (2019), not all medication errors are reported. Medication errors refer to preventable issues that might to improper use of medication and causes harm to the patients. Irrespective of the compulsory guidelines for reporting medication errors, it increases the risk for underreporting among the nurses. Nursing students have been accused of failing to report most of the medication errors. Medication administration safety is vital in the nursing process. A major portion of the nurse’s tasks involves the administration of safe medication to the patients. Safe medical administration improves the quality of care services offered to the patients. In the medication administration process, the nurse has a huge role in implementing the medical orders and adhering to the medical guidelines (Sassaki et al., 2019). The medication errors are common errors that can happen in various phases of the medication administration process, including: prescription, verification, delivery, and administration process. Medication errors situations might lead to improper use of medication, which is preventable. Medication errors have adequate impact on the health of the patients and the overall quality of the care services.
Elements of the Problem/Issue
One of the elements of medication errors is medical interruptions. Concentration is important in reducing distractions and potential errors during the health care process. Safe practice by reducing interruptions will help the nurses to administer medication effectively and improve safe administration of medicines. According to Abuelsoud (2018), the medication process is complex, which increases the workload of the professional nurses and teams, leading to medication errors. Nursing professionals might administer the wrong medication dose because of interruptions in the workflow. Other important aspects that lead to medication errors includes hasty performance of roles, increased stress, lack of attention, and distractions in the process of administrating drugs.
Communication failures might also lead to an increase in medication errors. Some of the communication failures includes duplication of symbols in the administration of the prescribed drugs within the scheduled period. Lack of signaling for inclusion or exclusion of drugs might impact on the safety of the administration of the medications (Sassaki et al., 2019). Such communication errors will lead to confusion in the preparation and administration of medications. Therefore, overcoming these medication errors will improve the long-term safety of administering medications to the patients.
Analysis
As a professional nurse, it is critical to understand the risks of medication errors that will affect the quality of medical care. Some of the medication errors involves wrong prescription, double dosing of medical drugs, and failure to communicate with other nurses the right medications to administer to the patients. The addressing of the errors will affect the quality assessment of the medication process. There is a need to ensure all medication errors are addressed to improve the safety of the patients and improve their recovery process.
Context of Medication Errors
In the nursing process, the administration of medications is a complex process that involves other individual procedures. Nurses should learn about changes to medications and clinical guidelines to ensure proper administration of medications. Distractions and confusion from overloading of work might lead to improper administration of medications. At the organizational level, the health care organizations should streamline their medication administration processes to avoid double dosing and errors in communicating the medications to the nurses in the shifts. Overcoming these medication error causes will help to improve the quality of patient care (Natan et al., 2017). The demand and tasks necessary in the administration of drugs face potential failures and thus, might impact the quality of care and cause an increase in medication errors. Improper medication use is another aspect of a medication error that impacts patient care. The timing and management of patient care, such as the rapid administration of medications and inappropriate usage of medication to improve the safety of patient care services.
Populations Affected
The in-patient populations are highly vulnerable to suffering from medication errors. The admission of the patients in the hospitals requires the contribution of the nurses to ensure the right administration of medications. Helping admitted patients will reduce medication errors to improve long-term patient safety. The target population depends on the nurses to perform their functions to overcome medication errors and improve patient safety and medical quality care services.
Considering Options
One of the important options in resolving medication errors in the design and implementation of a comprehensive medication safety reporting system. Health care organizations should develop safe reporting systems to improve documentation and reduce the incidence of medication errors in health care facilities. There is a need to develop a comprehensive medical reporting system to improve the quality of care and improving the nursing processes. Magalhães et al. (2019) found out that nurses feared the reaction for the disclosure of errors from their colleagues, which reduces the possibility of reporting the medication errors. The implementation of comprehensive reporting systems would identify the errors and work on reducing them.
Medical reconciliation is another available option that provides accurate medication lists of the patients and the transition of their medical interventions to prevent the occurrence of medication errors. Proper medication reconciliation is critical in preventing the occurrence of a majority of the medication variances inpatient care (Natan, et al., 2017). However, there are various factors such as insufficient patient contact time and language that might impact the medication reconciliation process and medication errors, which occur in the implementation of patient care and medication reconciliation process. However, the beneficial impacts of medication reconciliation on the reduction of medication discrepancies in the medical care process.
Solution
The right solution to overcome medication errors is designing a medication reconciliation strategy to improve the accurate listing of medications and help in the transition of medical interventions to prevent the risks of medication errors. The medication reconciliation process will help in the prevention of the majority of medication errors and variances to improve the quality of patient care. The solution involves overcoming language barrier concerns and insufficient patient scheduling programs to improve the quality of medical care services (Sassaki et al., 2019). The effective scheduling of medication will reduce the risks of medication errors and improve patient safety. Medication reconciliation might integrate other technological interventions to improve the quality of patient safety and overcoming potential medical errors.
Implementation
The medication reconciliation process is important in comparing medication orders of patients to the medications being taken by the patients. The reconciliation process helps to ensure the patients are taking the right medication to avoid errors and safety concerns. The medication reconciliation process involves developing a list of reliable medications, development of medication lists to be prescribed, comparing medications on two lists, making clinical decisions depending on comparison, and communication of the new lists to the relevant caregivers and patients. The medication reconciliation process is important in promoting the effective administration of medications (Abuelsoud, 2018). These five steps are critical to overcome medication errors and work on promoting quality administration of medications effectively. The nurses should work with the pharmacist to develop the list of medications to improve the safety of the patients. The comparison and scheduling of the medications will improve the process of administering drugs to avoid medication errors. Online medication records might help to evaluate the list of medications to improve the effective administration of medications effectively.
Ethical Implications
From an ethical point of view, the proposed medication reconciliation process aligns with the core ethical principles of honesty and accountability. The benefits of medication reconciliation are reducing potential medication errors and improving the quick administration of the medications. The intervention will guide the nurses on the right medication to administer to the admitted patients in the health care organizations. However, medication reconciliation does not address the unethical perspectives of nurses. According to Abuelsoud (2018), professional medical staff should learn to be accountable for their roles and actions to improve the effective administration of medications. The solution cannot change the commitment and responsibility of the nurses to improve accountability and transparency. Thus, the medication reconciliation administration of medications would reduce the risks of medication errors and helping nurses to perform their functions effectively.
Conclusion
To sum up, medication administration safety is a necessary approach to improve the safe administration of medication to the patients. The professional nurses have a huge role in implementing the medical orders and adhering to the medical guidelines. Some of the critical elements of medication errors include the hasty performance of roles, increased stress, lack of attention, and distractions in the process of administrating drugs. Potential communication failures also increase the risks of medication errors, such as the duplication of symbols in the administration of the prescribed drugs within an appropriate time. The relevant solution for the effective administration of medication is designing a medication reconciliation strategy to improve the accurate listing of medications and help in the transition of medical interventions to prevent the risks of medication errors. The medication reconciliation process will help in the prevention of the majority of medication errors and variances to improve the quality of patient care. The proper medication reconciliation strategy is relevant in enhancing accountability to avoid medication errors.

References
Abuelsoud, N. N. (2018). Improving medication safety through implementation of medication error reporting systems in different medical specialities. Journal of Pharmacy Practice and Research, 48(6), 537-542.
Choi, Y. J., & Kim, H. (2019). Effect of pharmacy‐led medication reconciliation in emergency departments: A systematic review and meta‐analysis. Journal of Clinical Pharmacy & Therapeutics, 44(6), 932–945. https://doi-org.library.capella.edu/10.1111/jcpt.13019.
Magalhães, A. M. M. D., Kreling, A., Chaves, E. H. B., Pasin, S. S., & Castilho, B. M. (2019). Medication administration–nursing workload and patient safety in clinical wards. Revista brasileira de enfermagem, 72(1), 183-189. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/0034-7167-2018-0618.
Natan, M. B., Sharon, I., Mahajna, M., & Mahajna, S. (2017). Factors affecting nursing students’ intention to report medication errors: An application of the theory of planned behavior. Nurse Education Today, 58, 38-42.
Sassaki, R. L., Cucolo, D. F., & Perroca, M. G. (2019). Interruptions and nursing workload during medication administration process. Revista Brasileira de enfermagem, 72(4), 1001-1006.