How Nurses Administer Medications Safely Or How Existing Systems Facilitate / Hinder The Medication Administration

According to a cross-sectional study involving 237 nurses, approximately 65% of the nurses have made medication error. Only 31% of the participants reported medication errors. According to the study the most common type of reported errors were wrong dosage and infusion rate. The most common causes were using abbreviations of the drugs and similar names of the drugs. However, the study did not find any relationship between medication years and years of experience, age, and working shift. Yet study found association between intravenous injection and gender (Cheragi at al

Each year, roughly 1.5 million adverse drug events (ADEs) occur in acute and long-term care settings across America (Institute of Medicine [IOM], 2006). An ADE is succinctly defined as actual or potential patient harm resulting from a medication error. To expound further, while ADEs may result from oversights related to prescribing or dispensing, 26-32% of all erroneous drug interventions occur during the nursing administration and monitoring phases (Anderson & Townsend, 2010). These mollifiable mishaps not only create a formidable financial burden for health care systems, they also carry the potential of imposing irreversible physiological impairment to patients and their families. In an effort to ameliorate cost inflation, undue detriment, and the potential for litigation, a multifactorial approach must be taken to improve patient outcomes. Key components in allaying drug-related errors from a nursing perspective include: implementing safety and quality measures, understanding the roles and responsibilities of the nurse, embracing technological safeguards, incorporating interdisciplinary collaborative efforts, and continued emphasis upon quality control.

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

As clinical site co-ordinator with many years of clinical experience I feel competent in the drug administration via a variety of routes. Generally the patients I attend have become acutely unwell with most prescriptions not having the third eye of a pharmacist and most drugs being delivered intravenously. It is imperative therefore that the prescription and drugs always be thoroughly checked which relies on good communication throughout. Furthermore, most emergency drugs have a protocol for administration developed by the hospital. However within this situation the nurse is generally the last defence before any medication error actually occurs, therefore it is the nurses responsibility to ensure the prescription is correct and to challenge prescription written

Breeding, et al. (2013) states that there are a number of published documents addressing the quality, safety, and explicitly medication safety within ICUs worldwide. A large proportion of these studies focused on specific interventions such as: (1) creating “No interruption zones”; (2) addressing drug incompatibilities; (3) implementing automatic drug dispensing systems or electronic prescription of medications; or (4) implementing an ICU pharmacist role (Breeding, et al., 2013, p. 59). It is essential for multidisciplinary teams to be formed for medication safety promotion within this population. These teams would include physicians, pharmacists, and nurses (to also include advanced practicing nurses [APRN], such as nurse practitioners [NPs] or clinical nurse specialists

Administration of medication to a patient is an interdisciplinary concern. When dealing with medication, nurses are held with as much accountability as other members within the medical team. To uphold this standard, it is important for nurses to stay informed with new research to help provide better care to their patients. The nursing community also adheres to the “nursing process,” a guide that nurses utilize to achieve well-rounded care. Nurses can relate the nursing process not only to their plan of care, but also to different subjects to systematically analyze information. Applying the nursing process to this research created a connection that allows awareness of the

As a leader in the workplace, medication errors mostly occur when the workplace is understaffed with a patient load of full nursing cares that require more attention and care than patients who are independent. Due to being understaffed with a patient load of 13 to 2 nurses, medication errors occur more often as nurses are being rushed to finish all cares within their work timeframe. To decrease medication errors it is important to implement more staff during medication rounds, thus giving nurses additional time to concentrate and assure that the correct medication and dose is being given to the right patient ( ). The 6 medication rights are important to implement into every workplace as it decreases the chances of administrating medication to the wrong patients ( ). The medication right include; ______________________________________________________________ ( ). Medication errors have important implications for patient safety and in improving clinical practice errors to prevent any adverse events (

This research project utilized a quantitative descriptive approach that explored a sterile cockpit principle in efforts to decrease WIs during medication preparation and administration. The author’s provide cited reviews of prior studies that concluded that WIs are significantly associated with medication errors, delays in patient treatments, as well as loss of focus and concentration for the nurses. Furthermore, the researchers were able to forego the approval of institutional review board at a Mid-Atlantic VA Healthcare System as this project was Government work and considered a quality improvement project. Researchers found that interruptions and distractions were initiated a majority of the time from fellow nurses and other hospital staff members. This programme applied crew source management (CRM) concepts to nursing care focusing on educating the staff in teamwork, communication through leadership, self-advocacy, situational awareness, clinical decision making and the implementation of briefings, checklists and distraction management techniques (Fore, Sculli, Albee & Neily, 2013). This was a credible source as it met all requirements outlined in Janet Houser’s book, Evidence Nursing Research: Reading, Using, and Creating (2008) and the

The article is, Evaluating the Impact of Medication Cabinets in Patient’s Rooms on a Medical-Surgical Telemetry Unit, and it is a study about the impact of medication cabinets in each patient’s room on the administration of medication. In the article it states, “Nurses spend 27% of their time on medication-related activities and over 73% of their time on nonmedication-related activities, and they are responsible for 26-38% of medication errors in hospitalized patients,” (Arinal, M. F., Cohn, T., & Avila-Quintana, C., 2014, pg. 77). From personal experience in the hospital, it is no surprise that nurses spend so much time on medication administration. A majority of the morning is spent gathering supplies and

The ability to become reflective in practice has become a necessary skill for health professionals. This is to ensure that health professionals are continuing with their daily learning and improving their practice. Reflective practice plays a big part in healthcare today and is becoming increasingly noticed.

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.

The article “Progressive Care Nurses Improving Patient Safety by Limiting Interruptions During Medication Administration” by Flynn etal, (2016), talks about a study conducted a medication improvement project in a progressive cardiac care unit, and implemented a Nurse uninterrupted passing medication safety (NUPASS) guideline. Common interruptions identified by nurses in the study that contributed to medication error during medication administration included, phone calls, access to sources or equipment out of reach such as missing medications or health related supplies, nurses interrupting each other with non-related medication conversation, or patient related interruptions. The NUPASS guideline recommended increasing teamwork during busy hours, the study results show the percentage of medication errors have decreased after implementing these

Analyzing the acute care context is crucial when critiquing the many activities that nurses carry out during their shifts. This analysis ensures that these activities are being performed correctly, while also maintaining that the patient and his or her needs are at the centre of care. In particular, when examining the medication administration process (MAP), nurses must explore many factors, including the practice standards and guidelines that accompany this activity, the positive and negative aspects associated with current as well as best practice, barriers and facilitators associated with best practice, and how one can maintain his or her best practice within this activity. For the purpose of this

This article defines how important nurses’ role is during prepare medication administration, also introduces the using technologies, such as mobile devices in order to share information and communicate to diminish medication error. They suggest medication error occurrence will be decreased through using the mobile devices during preparing and administering medication by nurses. Also, there is suggestion

Medication error is one of the biggest problems in the healthcare field. Patients are dying due to wrong drug or dosage. Medication error is any preventable incident that leads to inappropriate medication use or harms the patient while the medication is in the control of the health care professional,or patient (U.S. Food and Drug Administration, 2015). It is estimated about 44,000 inpatients die each year in the United States due to medication errors which were indeed preventable (Mahmood, Chaudhury, Gaumont & Rust, 2012). There are many factors that contribute to medication error. However, the most common that factors are human factors, right patient information, miscommunication of abbreviations, wrong dosage. Healthcare providers do not intend to make medication errors, but they happen anyways. Therefore, nursing should play a tremendous role to reduce medication error