Lack Of Training On Drug Disposal

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.

With access to prescription drugs, people are able to treat a multitude of diseases and illnesses. These drugs help deal with pain, inability to sleep, depression, and much more. Every day we are increasingly living in a world where there is better living through chemicals. However, what most do not seem to see is the rising tide of pain, illness, and ultimately death being caused by the pills people take every day. Most keep drugs in a special place in their minds, where they see them as harmless. Sadly, this is not the case, and in some cases our prescription drugs can be just as harmful as illegal drugs (King 68).

Easy access to the drugs is another important factor contributing to nurses who substance abuse. As stated by Serghis (1999) the availability of medications in the workplace has been linked to substance abuse among nurses (as cited in Talbert, 2009, p.17). Part of the nurse’s duty every day is to give medication to their patients, which exposes them to have easy access to drugs. Nurses who take medication from their patients for their own personal use are "always using the maximum PRN dosage when other nurses use less" (DeClerk, 2008, p. 12). The healthcare field accepts the use of medication and so nurses may perceive the wrong idea by making use of patients drugs themselves. "Medications are easily accessible to nurses, who may believe erroneously that they have the ability to control their own medications use because of their experience with administering medication to patients" (Talbert, 2009, p. 17). In the case

There are several current legislation, guidelines, policies and protocols relevant to the administration of medication. These are The medicines Act (1968), Misuse of Drugs Act (1971), Misuse of Drugs Regulations (2007), Health Act (2000) The Care Standards Act (2000), Domiciliary Care Agencies Regulations (2002) Control of Substances Hazards to Health (2002), Hazard Waste Regulations, Controlled Waste Regulations (1992), The Handling of Medic9ines in Social Care and The Safe and Secure Handling of Medicines; a Team Approach.

The storage of medicines is usually a matter for service users and their families however special procedures may need to be exercised in some cases to protect a vulnerable service user. Where it is inappropriate for the service user to have access this will identified in the care plan and medication must be kept in a safe place which is known and accessible to relative, care/support workers, health professionals and domiciliary care staff.

* Nursing care providers are not covered by this legislation and must make their own arrangements for the disposal of unwanted medicine through a licensed waste management company.

The Hazardous Waste Regulations 2005 forbids the mixing of different types of hazardous waste (medication, needles and gloves), and the mixing of hazardous waste with non-hazardous waste in health care settings. This means that health care settings will need at least two containers, one for ‘hazardous waste and one for ‘Non-hazardous. It’s classed an offence if health care settings don’t follow the rules when getting rid of hazardous waste. This regulation also states that when people don’t need their medication they should be returning it them the pharmacy instead of disposing them in the bin.

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

One of the critical core components of Skilled Nursing Facility is medication administration. As cited by Tenhunen, Tanner, and Dahlen (2014), they stated that 88% of the residents living in the nursing homes are aged 65 years old and older. They discussed that every five of administered medications in nursing home has one probability of error. This means that about half of the residents have the possibility of two or more medication errors daily. This applies to the Pasadena Care Center (PCC) because its residents are mostly older adults who require medications on a daily basis. Moreover, residents are prescribed with multiple medications, which make them vulnerable to medication errors. The staff at PCC is trying their best to ensure safe medication administration, however, it still in need of a major change. The goal of the proposed change is to decrease the medication errors in this organization to ensure patient safety.

Through reviewing the literature, prescriptive authority of controlled substances by NP in Pennsylvania has been challenging. Many societal issues have influenced the growth of nurse prescriptive practices. The shortage of providers, particularly for underserved, uninsured populations, has been thoroughly documented (Pearson, 2009).

The Medication Policy and procedure and Mars Handbook covers assessment of individuals’ needs, administering, storage, recording and disposal of medicines including their effects and potential side effects

dispose properly of leftover drugs which can be hazardous to the environment and not allowing

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

The major weakness is in the execution of the objectives of Allied Medical Waste Tracking. The disposal means have not been approved by written standards of operating procedures. In addition, there is no regulation whatsoever on the disposal practice. This means that there is no sure way of knowing that the waste’s effects have been neutralized.

People all over the world, continue to be tendered prescription medication, which in many cases further complicate health issues with its myriad of side effects. In fact, statistics have shown that approximately 100,000 people around the world die as a result of prescription drugs annually (Smith, 2012). On the contrary, according