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Heparin Adverse Incident Analysis Paper

Decent Essays
Heparin Adverse Event, Failure Modes, and Effects Analysis

Anticoagulants such as Warfarin, Heparin, Lovenox, and Eliquis are blood thinners that prevent a blood clot in patients at risk of developing deep vein thrombosis also known as DVT. According to Alquwaizani, Buckley, Adams, & Fanikos (2013), they are the primary therapy for preventing and treating blood coagulation for most hospitalized patients. Like other drugs, anticoagulants also have serious adverse events that nurses must know about. Nurses must be most concerned about bleeding because it could be fatal if not quickly detected and controlled. Therefore, they all should carefully assess and closely monitor patients on anticoagulant therapy in order to prevent complications and
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So, it is crucial for the nurse to measure the aPTT of patients receiving IV heparin infusion every six hours and change the dose accordingly to achieve therapeutic levels and prevent the risk of bleeding (Alquwaizani, Buckley, Adams, & Fanikos 2013). According to Alquwaizani, Buckley, Adams, & Fanikos (2013), “hemorrhage is the main concerning adverse event with all anticoagulants” (p. 83). Hence, nurses should carefully assess all patients receiving an anticoagulant therapy whether orally, IV infusion, or subcutaneous injections for signs of bleeding such as bruises, hematoma, tarry or bloody stool, and bright red blood emesis. In addition, they must strictly adhere to IV heparin administration protocol per their organization policy. Statistically, no significant cases of bleeding disorders associated with the IV administration have been reported. This is because two nurses are required to verify the dose and weight of the patient prior to and during the infusion to assure safe IV administration process. According to Alquwaizani, Buckley, Adams, & Fanikos (2013), “0-7 % of major bleeding, fatal bleeding about 0–3 %, and heparin-induced thrombocytopenia (HIT, 1–5 %) are associated the major complications of Unfractionated Heparin (UFH) therapy” (p.
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