Medication Error And Medication Errors

Medication Errors Shonda Delmage Baker College of Cadillac 04/24/2015 Medication Errors 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.

Medication Errors Caused By Interrupting Administration4As for environmental interruptions, an overview of what is causing the distractionwithin the workplace needs to be determined first. A solution to a noisy room may be the use of floor or ceiling materials or even wall covers to muffle sounds (Mahmood,Chaudhury, Valente. 2011, p.

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

Abstract There were five evidence based articles used from CINAHL nursing database to conduct research on medication administration. The surveys presented in the articles identified risk factors associated with medication administration errors amongst the nursing staff working in the clinical environment. The articles not only presented risk factors but provided strategies to avoid these risk factors in order to implement good nursing practice. The factors contributing to medication errors was similar, not to same exactly the same, in the articles. What constituted a

Medication Error and its adverse effects to the elderly Firehiwot Bealy University of Regina Medication Error and Its Adverse Effects Older adults are at high risk for adverse effects of medication error more than their counteract younger adults. This is because they depend on more than one medication in order to treat or prevent disease, syndromes and sickness (Lindenberg, 2010). It is inevitable that the elderly face adverse effects of drugs while on medication especially when they still live independently. However, chances of errors in hospitals and care homes are more frequent when the medication process connects several departments (Belen et. al., 2009). Therefore, tactical measures are required in the provision of drug therapy in order to optimize safe medication in older adults. This paper discusses the issue by analyzing the existing structure of administering medication, reviewing the occurrence of medication errors; evaluating systems developed to advance safe medication administration. Finally, addressing the implication for professional nursing practice.

Medication errors originate in multiple ways such as “professional practice, health care products, procedures, and systems, including prescribing; order communication; product labeling, packaging, and nomenclature; compounding; dispensing; distribution; administration; education; monitoring; and use” (U.S. Food and Drug Administration, 2015). Many patients may be quick to criticize medication errors to be the responsibility of the professional who administers the medication rather than the manufacturing, production and data entry processes.

Medication errors occur more often than they should. It is recorded that medication errors occur in children every eight minutes or in every 25 out of 1900 children. Adults older than age of 65 are seven times at a greater risk of being victim of medication errors than those adults under the of age 65. What is a medication error? A medication error is a event that may cause or lead to inappropriate medication use or patient harm while the medication is in control of the healthcare professional, patient, or a consumer. The patient has to actually receive the drug in order for it to be considered a medication error. Detrimental patient outcomes are associated with medication errors. A few of the many harmful effects include medication overdose, stroke, heart attack, organ damage, harm to fetus, paralysis, and death. The numbers of occurring medication errors are staggering but they can be prevented. There a precautions to take in order to safely administer and prevent medication errors, which requires following the “six rights of medication administration”. These six rights are as followed, right patient, right drug, right dose, right route, right time & date, and the right documentation.

Objective: A high percentage of medication errors are happening that involves the nursing staff. In this study, I examined some potential reason why medication errors occur due to lack of education, competency skills, feeling rushed, giving too much drugs, and drugs with similar names. I sought to determine whether nurses are being properly educate or are just not satisfied enough with their work

Approximately 440,000 people die every year from preventable medication errors. This is is the third leading cause of death in the United States. Many of these errors could be avoided if Medical facilities would use standard precautions when administering medications. Health care workers should be better educated in patient care and preventable medical errors, this extra knowledge could save millions of lives and save millions of dollars. To keep these medication errors from occurring, it is important that all medical staff keep increasing their knowledge about medication errors and patient care. This will help decrease the death tolls in all Medical facilities.

Individual factor of medication errors has latent causes. Though it is difficult to control cause of fatigue outside workplace but situations that increase fatigue and pressures in the workplace can be limited. These interventions can be division of responsibilities and excellent management of schedule to ensure that there is sufficient number of staff in each shift. Computerization provides immediate access to patient information and history including medication, hence, reducing medication

Types of medication error can be stored as prescription, transcription, dispensing, administration and mentoring errors. Prescription error defined as an error that related to writing medication order3. For example, order writing illegible or lack of information about patient or medication .The second type of the medication errors is transcription error which occur during transfer the information from order sheet to the Medication Administration Record (MAR)4.It includes order transcribed to wrong patient or transcribed for wrong drug, dose and route. The third type of medication error is dispensing error that originate at any stage during the dispensing process5. It refers to medication error related to the pharmacy. It involves errors of

There are fore main reason for Medication Error. First, patient knowledge deficiency such as allergy information. Second, medication knowledge deficiency such as drug compatibility. Third, non-adherence to policies and procedures. For example, order the drug in non-verbal or abbreviation ways so that led to error. Before administer the drug, the nurse did not check the name. The health giver did not follow the nursing, pharmacy or treatment policy Forth, miscellaneous for example: the caregiver forget to administrate the drug, or equipment failure. There are many drugs names look alike or sound alike another, so that make the caregiver confuse between them. The top ten drugs that involved in the errors are: insulin 8% Next, the Morphine 2.3%

Medication administration is one nursing task that is considered a high-risk area for patient care (Gladstone, 1995). Studies had shown that “medication errors are the most common and preventable cause of patient harm… and should be immediately reported in order to facilitate the development of a learning culture” (Haw, Stubbs, & Dickens, 2014, p. 797). Thus, a nurse who

In the article it is supported that tiredness and fatigue are the main factors that contribute to medication mistakes respectively 25.3% and 16.5%. When nurses are tired it becomes difficult for them to focus on medication administration. Miscommunication is also major aspect that is associated with increasing MAEs rate. 16.5%

A medication error is any preventable event that could cause patients harm while the medication is in the control of the health care professional, patient, or consumer. Some common cause for medication errors include ineligible handwriting, similar packaging design, similar names, or similar characteristics. These include drug strengths, dosage forms, and dosage intervals. The (DMEPA) Division of Medication Error Prevention and Analysis main priority is the premarket review of proposed proprietary medication names, labeling, and packaging, and Human Factor Studies in order to prevent medication errors. They also provide guidance and advise industries on the development of drugs and considerations from a medication error perspective. Fully writing