A Research Study On Patient Safety And Technology Drive Medications

As a graduate nurse there are strategies that I will use to ensure that Standard 4 Medication Safety is adhered to and patient outcomes are improved. The two strategies I would use include double checking of medication with another nurse and ensuring patient identifiers are being used.

This article will look at two articles and focus on aspects of safety medication administration in nursing practice by the staff nurses. This is interesting area because the previous report on the medication administration error in the UK shows that approximately 5.6% of doses administered to adult hospital patients and it has been estimated that 0.6-1.2% of medication administration errors may lead to severe harm even death (Mcleod et al, 2013). Leape et al (1995) indicated that nurses were responsible for 86% of all medication error interception, regardless of the original errors. The nurses play the important role in identifying the causes of medication errors and preventing medication administration errors in nursing practice in order to provide safe care toward the service users (Henneman et al, 2010). The Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA 2004) documented that the health professionals need to effectively and safely use medicines to ensure patients get the maximum benefit from the medicine; meanwhile minimizing the potential harm. This article will be critiqued on the different types of evidence which explored safety medication administration in the nursing practice toward service user. Using evidence is important in nursing practice because it can help nurses in addressing questions related to best possible care and improve patients’ outcome. It is embedded within the code the nurses are expected to use best possible evidence in the nursing

In healthcare today, when hospitals are judged upon patient safety standards, it is critical to prevent errors involving medication administration. Distractions while preparing and administering medications, has been report as one of the leading causes of medication errors. Distractions while nurses are administering medications can lead to poor patient outcomes and even sentinel events. Nurses and nurse managers are responsible for maintaining a unit with minimal distractions. When distractions are minimized throughout medication administration process, a decrease in medication errors will occur and lead to increased patient outcomes.

medication errors was similar, not to same exactly the same, in the articles. What constituted a

According to Schneider, Elliot, LoBiondo-Wood & Haber (2004), qualitative research methods, search for the meaning and understanding of human experiences in a naturalistic setting. A researcher obtains subjective facts in order to explore the experiences of each participant (Schneider, Elliot, LoBiondo-Wood & Haber 2004). As a result, qualitative research is a means in which a researcher gains an insight into the participant's point of view concerning their personal experiences; in order gain an understanding of the information given. Therefore this allows a researcher to collect subjective information to create a description of the phenomenon (Vishnevsky & Beanlands 2004).

The earlier in a nursing student schooling they are aware of the impact medication errors can have on patients the more of an impact the education will have. One of the basic tenants of safe medication administration is the three checks and the five rights. Three checks of medication labeling should be performed when reaching for the medication, when retrieving from the medication dispersal unit and before giving the medication to the patient. The five rights of medication: right medication, right patient, right dosage, right route and right time are also to be performed before each distribution of medication to a patient. (Taylor, Lillis, Lynn, & LeMone, 2015). This simple intervention can help to eliminate most potential medication error problems. But while learning such strategies is essential to helping build a culture of safety within a health care facility nothing compares to hands on experience. Getting nursing students’ clinical medication administration experience early in their education can build confidence and instill the qualities needed to be a safe

As defined by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA, 2015), a medication error is “any preventable event that may cause or lead to inappropriate medication use or harm to a patient.” In order to prevent harm by medications, nurses and nursing students alike are required to adhere to the “seven patient rights,” which help eliminate any possible errors in the medication administration process. These seven rights include: right patient, right drug, right dose, right route, right time, right action and right documentation. However, many medication errors continue to occur because one or more of these rights is either violated, or omitted altogether. Research done by Polifroni, et al. (2003), shows that the most common errors in medication administration are those involving the time of administration and the dosage amount. These errors are often a direct result of the nurse’s increasingly chaotic practicing environment. Increasing nursing shortages create a larger patient load for each nurse, making is easier for the nurse to get distracted and inadvertently miss the dose,

There are now computers in every room, in almost every healthcare facility. Nurses now chart most of their medication administrations in the room and can focus on one patient at a time. A nurse must scan the patient’s band or some identifier and scan the meds before giving the medication to the patient. The computer program will tell the nurse if he or she made a mistake with the time of medication, wrong dosage, wrong medication, and/or wrong patient. In a hospital in England, there was a declined in medication errors from 8.6 percent to 4.4 percent when a new computer system was implemented. Prescription errors were also reduced from 3.8 percent to 2 percent. The new system was computerized order entry, automated dispensing, and had electronic medication administration records. Technology has greatly reduced the percent of medical errors, but not all of them, but by studying different systems and modifying systems hopefully medication errors will be a thing of the past (Hughs & Blegen,

In today’s current fast-paced and demanding field of heath care, medication administration has become complex and time-consuming task. Approximately one-third of the nurses’ time is used in medication administration. There is much potential for error because of the complexity of the medication administration process. Since nurses are the last ones to actually administer the medication to the patient therefore they become responsible for medication administration errors (MAE). Reasons for MAE may include individual factors, organizational factors or system factors. This paper will discuss the root causes analysis of MAE and strategies to prevent them.

Medication administration is a multi-step process that is handled by multiple healthcare professionals. It begins with the prescription that is transcribed mostly by the physician, then dispensed by the pharmacist, and ends with the administration of the medication by the nurse. Throughout this multi-step process, medication errors can occur at any stage of the medication administration process. As expressed by L. Cloete in “Reducing medication errors in nursing practice,” “One third of the errors that harm patients occur during the nurse administration phase: administering medication to patients is therefore a high-risk activity.” Because the nurse is responsible for administering medication to the patient, he/she is considered and viewed as the most accountable in regards to the patient’s safety. Medication errors are one of the most common medical errors that can result in an adverse event that may pose a serious threat to the patient’s safety and well-being. In the article, “An inside look into the factors contributing to medication errors in the clinical nursing practice,” Savvato and Efstratios defined and characterized medication error as “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. Such events may be related to professional practice, health care products, procedures, and systems, including prescribing; order communication;

The Causes of Medication Errors in Nursing Medication errors are among the most common type of medical error, and it is widely known that the consequences can be very significant for the patient. Medication errors also affect healthcare individuals leading to personal and professional embarrassment and emotional trauma of involvement in the adverse outcomes (Pezzolesi, Ghaleb, Kostrzewski, & Dhillon, 2013). The entire goal of nursing is to maintain the safety of every client, although it is no easy task. Medical management is one of the most labor intensive, and possibly one of the most risk-laden duties performed in the provision of patient care (Leufer & Cleary-Holdforth, 2013). The purpose of this paper is to determine and discuss the

A model of medication errors was developed on error-producing conditions like work environment, team factors, personal factors, medication-related support services and patient-specific factors, Chang and Mark (2009). Work environment factors looked at nursing and how they simultaneously manage multiple patients. Nurses shift their attention from patient to patient and often carry out several tasks at a time. Having more nurses staffed has been associated with a decrease in medication errors (McGillis Hall et al 2004). Team factors expressed that medication administration is a multistep process with many involved disciplines. Therefore, there needs to be a well-established communication across disciplines. Most important is the communication between nurses and providers. We need to also look at a nurses’ ability to recognize a potentially dangerous event early on. Expert nurses are expected to make fewer errors and recognize a change in a patients’ condition at its earliest. (Minick and Harvey

This following article will look at two articles and focus on aspects of safety medication administration in nursing practice by the staff nurses. This area is interesting because the previous report showed approximately 5.6% of Non-intravenous doses administered to adult hospital patients, and it has been estimated that 0.6-1.2% of medication administration errors may led to severe harm even dearth (Mcleod et al, 2013). Leape et al (1995) indicated that nurses were responsibility for 86% of all medication error interception, regardless of the original errors. The nurses play the important role to identify the causes of medication errors and prevent medication administration errors in nursing practice in order to provide safe care toward the service users (Henneman et al, 2010). The Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA 2004) clarify that all the clinical, cost effective and safe use of medicines to ensure patients get the maximum benefit from the medicine they need and the same time minimizing the potential harm. This article will be critiqued on the different types of evidence which explored safety medication administration in the nursing practice toward service user. Using evidence is important in nursing practice because it can helps nurses in addressing questions related to best possible care and improve patients’ outcome.It is embedded with code the nurses are expected to use best possible evidence in the nursing practice in order to provide the

This exercise involved a communication exchange between a small group of nursing students with a small group of pharmacy students. It was designed as an opportunity for health care professionals in different disciplines to ask one another about areas of professional responsibility that they share. For example, nursing students explained some of the problems they encounter making sure they avoid any errors in selecting the right medication for administration to their patients in the clinical environment. This provided pharmacists in training to develop a better understanding of how their practices, such as in connection with labeling medications can promote high quality clinical healthcare and how they can develop practices to improve patient safety by reducing the possibility of clinical medication administration errors. Likewise, pharmacy students had the opportunity to gain a better understanding of the role that nurses often play in clinical practice when it comes to patient safety in connection with helping to identify mistakes made by physicians and by pharmacists.

Qualitative research is a technique of promoting research that stresses the quality according to the user’s point of view and approaches. In depth interviews and focus groups are best examples of qualitative research. [Laura Lake, 2009]