Medication Administration and Mark 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 …show more content…
Mark is sixty year old patient who has been admitted to the unit following an appendectomy and has a comorbidity of hypertension, which he was diagnosed with five years ago. As a result of this diagnosis, he has been prescribed various blood pressure medications by his family doctor to assist with controlling his pressure and has thereby been prescribed them during his hospital stay. These medications include metoprolol and ramipril, and are given orally, once daily (Karch, 2016). When Mark’s nurse has been giving these medications to him each morning at 0800, in addition to his other prescribed medications, she has not been incorporating best practice guidelines into her MAP. As a result, she is not only compromising the competence and safety of her care, but she is also putting Mark and his health at risk (Kim & Bates, 2013).
Medication Administration Policies, Standards, and Guidelines When reviewing the medication administration practices, it is important to evaluate it through an evidence-based lens. According to the College of Nurses of Ontario (CNO, 2015), nurses need to “ensure that their medication practices are evidence-informed” (p. 3). Thus, it is crucial for those examining the MAP to review the various evidence-informed healthcare journals that outline the importance of and methods associated with proper administration, which will thereby allow for a comparison of evidence-informed practice with a
Many of those drawback areas will fall inside the realm of nursing administration of medicines. It’s for simply these reasons that standards for medication administration were developed. The standards guarantee safe nursing observe.
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.
Nurses are responsible for multiple patients on any given day making medication errors a potential problem in the nursing field. Medication administration not only encompasses passing medication to the patients yet begins with the physician prescribing the medication, pharmacy filling the correct prescription and ending with the nurse administering and monitoring the patient for any adverse effect from the medication. According to the National Coordinating Council for Medication Error Reporting and Prevention (NCCMERP), ‘A medication error refers to any preventable event that may cause or lead to inappropriate medication use or patient harm while the medication is in the control of the healthcare professional,
1. In the workplace there is a generic Medication Management Policy and Procedures for Adult Services (Issue 10, 2012) document. This is kept to hand in a locked cupboard, readily available to read. It requires that all Healthcare Staff are given mandatory training and refreshers are provided. Legislation which surrounds the administration of medication includes The Medicines Act 1968, The Misuse of Drugs Act 1971, The Data Protection Act 1998, The Care Standards Act 2000 and The Health and Social Care Act 2001
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
However it was argued that the roles of Nurse Practitioners specifically in prescribing medications has impacted the Australian Medical Association and stated their concern on expanding these roles. They contended that compared to doctors, nurse practitioners lack the years in education preparation and clinical background to practice their role in prescribing medications. It was later on justified that care and treatment from a nurse practitioner in a primary health care setting is the same to a doctor (Elsom, S., Happell, B., Manias, E., 2009). This validate the importance of every health care professional regardless of whether they can prescribe or not to implement the poison standard and to educate people about the harmful effects when poisons are mishandled and
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
This journal talks about it takes failure to resolve medications across changes in care is an important cause of harm to patients. There is not a lot to known about medication discrepancies before patients are admitted to a skilled nursing facilities. To describe the prevalence of, type of medications involved in, and sources of medication discrepancies upon admission to the SNF setting. Cross-sectional study. Patients admitted to SNF for subacute care. Number of medication discrepancies upon admission to the SNF setting. Cross-sectional study. Patients admitted to SNF for subacute care. Number of medication discrepancies, defined as unexplained differences among documented medication regimens, including the hospital discharge summary, patient
Mediation reconciliation is the process of gathering all the medications, including over the counter meds, herbal supplements, and multivitamins a patient is taking regarding their care. Within the parameters of mediation reconciliation, dosage, frequently, name,and route are the prime factors of developing a medication regimen. The goal of knowing all medications of a patient before continuing with care or being admitted to specialized settings like hospitals or clinics will avoid over-medicated adverse effects and possibly death. According to the article, Medication Reconciliation to Facilitate Transition of Care after Hospitalization states that, “ It is estimated that 20% of patients experience adverse effects during the two weeks after hospital discharge (2015). With that in mind, image ho many patients experience this disparity throughout their lives with the advised medications given at the hospital. The nurse, as well as the patient and their families should be encouraged to be more involved in their care to avoid inadvertent inconsistencies across the transition of care between admission, transfer, and discharge from and to specialized settings. Aside from preventing medication errors, we as nurses, can support the patient 's safety as the first line of defense in battles against unsanitary and explosive adverse effects that results from inadequate nursing skills.
A physician could make mistakes in prescribing, the pharmacy could send the wrong medication, but who actually gave it to the patient is accountable for the consequences. For this reason, it’s our responsibility to implement change in our practice based on the evidence in order to ensure safe patient care.
Drug administration forms a major part of the clinical nurse’s role. Medicines are prescribed by the doctor and dispensed by the
This research study is about how nurses administer medications safely or how existing systems facilitate / hinder the medication administration, which has missed the opportunity for the implementation of practical, effective, and low-cost approach to optimize safety. The purpose of the study is to pinpoint factors that facilitate and/or hinder successful medication administration, which targets on three integral parts: nurse practices and workarounds, medication administration workflow, and nature of interruptions and distractions during medication administration. In effect, the findings showed three interrelated themes that facilitated successful medication administration in some situations, but also acted as barriers in others. These interrelated themes include (1) system configurations and features, (2) Behavior types among nurses, and (3) patient interactions. Some system configuration and features acted as physical pressure for parts of the drug round, however, some system effects were partly dependent on nurses ' inherent behavior, which were grouped as: 'task focus ' and 'patient-interaction focused '. The 'task focus ' is a more organized workflow with fewer interruptions, while 'patient-interaction focused ' empowers patients to act as a defense barrier against medication errors by being an active resource of information, a passive resource of information, and/or a 'double-checker '. Thus, researchers concluded that in order to reduce
The topic of reflection is a potential drug error made whilst on my clinical practise placement. The area of drug administration is an important role for nurses and therefore I will incorporate research evidence, policies and guidelines surrounding drug administration, discuss how the area can be developed and applied in professional practise.