Potential Medication Errors

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,

Outcome measures assess whether the interventions to improve medication safety practice will be successful. During the interview of the new employee, competency evaluation related to medication administration will be applied first. In addition, during the orientation for these new employees, adequate training will be provided to ensure the importance of preventing medication errors. They will be given a list of similar and look-alike medications and will focus on medications that cause the most adverse reactions when errors may occur. Then, after training and when staff start working, they will be supervised during their first few months. When they are not supervised, they will be assessed and evaluated for any errors. During this process,

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

only prevent administering the wrong medication to the patient but it can also educate the nurse

The words medication error elicit fear in every nurse. According to Stefanacci and Riddle (2016), preventable medication errors are responsible for third reason of death apart from heart disease and cancer in the United States. As a nurse, it is important to obtain skills and knowledge to prevent them as these errors could result in extended hospitalisation of patients, simultaneously a burden of health care cost. These errors could be reduced by identifying the problems which lead to medication errors and following certain protocols in a coordinated environment.

It should be recognized that medication errors do originate before a health professional administers a drug.

One of the major concerns in health care is medication administration errors, its complications, and their impacts of the health care system. The best feature for adequate medication is safety, which stipulates that the healthcare

Medications are used as one of the interventional strategies in the prevention and management of various ailments. Although medications are useful to patients, when used inappropriately, they are not only harmful to patients but also impair the reputation of physicians. Medication Errors (MEs) are known to occur in the healthcare setting. According to National Coordination Council for Medication Error Reporting and Prevention (NCCMERP) medication errors are defined as “Any preventable event that may cause or lead to inappropriate medication use or patient harm while the medication is in the control of a healthcare professional, patient or consumer”. Medication errors occur when a healthcare professional performs an act that

Strategies to address causative factor of medication error are detailed as follows: (1) team factor strategies, (2) task factor strategies, (3) environmental factor strategies, (4) individual factor strategies, and, (5) system/organisational factor strategies.

reduce inappropriate use of drugs. To minimize the medication errors, it is necessary to conduct

The population that is affected by medication errors are everyday people. They are vulnerable patients who reside in assisted or residential facilities, while relying on non-licensed staff members to administer their medication or provide care. While the clients are vulnerable, the rely solely the fate of others for medication administration as well as care assistance.

Strategies targeted at preventing medications errors are discussed in the subsequent sections. These strategies are aimed at distinct stages of the inpatient medication delivery process and other risks that often contribute to medication errors.

Drug names, labels and packaging contribute to medication errors. Drug product characteristics as well as processes at the facility can contribute to medication errors. Organizations should systematically evaluate each high-risk medication. The names of several medications are strikingly similar looking or similar sound. The potential for errors caused by lookalike, sound-alike medications may be reduced by using type size that can read easily, prescribing where to write clearly, storage using TALL man lettering, increasing knowledge of patient education if changes in medications appearance, procurement of medicine, placing warning labels on stock bins, and storing high-risk medications in nonadjacent areas. Nurses, especially

After the client is informed to the full extent needed, it is time to prepare for the administration of the medication. Through this, there are many steps that need to occur before the medication is actually given. There is a set of three times to check for safety and there are also five “rights” to the administration of medicine (Berman et al, 2016). The three times to check for safe medication administration begins with the first check

As a member of the health care system, part of the registered nurse’s day-to-day function is the administration of medications to patients. Bullock and Manias (2014) mentions that nurses give drugs directly to the patient, therefore, nurses are the last link in the medication administration cycle. It is the nurse’s responsibility to make sure that the six rights of medication administration are practiced for safe and adequate medication management. These six rights include Right patient, Right drug, Right dose, Right route, Right time and Right documentation (Tollefson & Hillman, 2012). The nurse can prevent medication error by observing the 6 “Rs” of medication