Safe Medication Administration

rights, health, and safety of the patient.” This provision, identifying patients, medication safety are related because it is a nurse’s responsibility to protect the patient from harm and promote safety. Nurses are taught to use multiple checks before administering a drug and use two identifiers. These checks include checking the medication against the order when obtaining it, checking again when preparing the medication and the last check is done at the patient’s bedside prior to giving the medication. Also it is imperative to question any medication order that does not seem fit. The order should include a date, time, name of the medication, dosage strength, the route for

A drug is a substance that causes changes in how your body functions. When you swallow a pill, the pill dissolves in your digestive system and the drug is absorbed into your bloodstream. Many drugs are designed to

The route in which a medication is administered is the ‘path’ that the drug/substance/fluid/poison is taken into the body these include:-

The National Prescribing Centre recognize some fundamental differences in the absorption, distribution and excretion of medicines between adults and children. The differences are published in the National Prescribing Centre’s bulletin, produced by

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

enters the blood stream in just a matter of seconds of using this drug. When eating or drinking

The nurse assesses the patient’s ability to swallow by providing a small sip of water.

Additionally, the facility should have a system in place that alerts the staff regarding high dosages. One way to alert the pharmacist would be via a computerized system that monitors the dispensing of all medications. The system should contain an up to date database for referencing medications. Also, the computerized system should have parameters set for alerting pharmacy and nursing staff for all high dosages. When taking cost into consideration, the facility might not have the feasibility to implement an entire computerized dispensing system that provides dosage alerts and cross check off of medications. To maintain patient safety with limited funds, the facility should have remote access to a pediatric pharmacy where all pediatric medications can be cross-checked and verified. If the facility was unable to have a pediatric pharmacist on staff, the remote access would provide a safety net for pediatric medication dispensing. In addition to the pharmacy staff having access to a computerized system, the physician should as well. Had the physician had computer access and been required to enter medication orders, the tenfold error could have been noted and not reached baby Miguel.

Plan: The primary goal for the nurse is to ensure Caroline is discharged able to administer and monitor her medications as well as recognise the indication, desired effect and potential side effects and adverse reactions for each drug. The nurse must apply health literacy principles, consider verbal and non-verbal communication techniques as well as apply adult learning principles to achieve this goal.

Pharmacokinetics consists of three components, absorption, distribution, and clearance. Absorption, especially from the oral route is the least influenced by the aging process and slows down, but remains complete (Adams et al., 2011). As the number of drugs ingested increases, the risk that absorption is interrupted increases (Adams et al., 2011). Distribution is significantly impacted with age. Older people have more body fat and less water than younger people. As a result, a drug that is fat soluble will remain in older bodies

ion. Systemic clearance is defined as the ability of the body to eliminate a drug from body fluid, namely blood or plasma, in volume unit of body fluid per time unit. Systemic clearance describes the whole body elimination of drug including renal and hepatic clearances while organ clearance describes the particular organ clearance. The main specific organs related to systemic clearance are hepatic and renal clearances. Numerous factors influence the systemic clearance rate which includes impairment of hepatic clearance, impairment of renal clearance, altered protein binding concentration, and organ blood flow. The liver plays a major role in system clearance as it contains the major metabolic systems in the body. An impairment of the liver

However, the persistence of drugs in these specimens is not absolutely determined by drug laboratories because of the several contributors that interact and influence the body dynamics and the processes inside. Consequently, drug testing times are affected thus

The basic steps of pharmacokinetics occur when a drug enters the body. From birth to adulthood, a number of anatomical, physiological and biochemical changes occur that affect the pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic processes of drug action, enzymatic biosynthesis, receptor production, and distribution. Occurring mostly in the perinatal period because of its great changes.

The process of absorption is affected by the drug’s form, a drug must be in a form that allows it to enter an organ wall and be carried by the blood stream. Distribution involves the transport of the drug by the circulatory system to the site of the intended action. Metabolism occurs primarily in the kidneys. Drugs are excreted by the liver and intestines. The kidneys filter the blood and remove unbound water soluble compounds and eliminate them with the passage of urine (Olson, J., 2006).

Diffusion- On contact with aqueous fluids in Gastro intestinal tract, water diffuses the interior of the particle. The drug dissolution occurs and drug solution diffuses across the external release coat. The diffusion principal shows release which depends on concentration and drug. It shows the zero order kinetics.