Medication Errors ESSAY – Medication errors are one of the most common errors in healthcare. They occur in approximately twenty-five percent of all medication administrations (Farag, Blegen, Gedney-Lose, Lose, & Perkhounkova, 2017). Although only a small percentage of these errors result in significant harm or death to the patient, the frequency of occurrence of medication errors is momentous.
Medication errors are greatly significant as a registered nurse. Nurses are the last line of defense before a medication enters a patient’s system. Nurses recognize this responsibility is tremendous and treat it as such. I personally have experience preventing medical multiple medication errors. My first medication error experience was due to an incorrect order placed by the physician. Despite all the extra safety precautions put in place for a student nurse, the patient was just moments away from receiving the medication before the computer displayed an error message after scanning in the medication.
My second medication error experience centered around the wrong oral antidiabetic being placed in my patient’s medication drawer. The medication was a similar name, prescribed for a similar reason, and was the same dose. I was not familiar with this medication, so I called the pharmacy, and the error was resolved before the patient was affected. These situations have enforced the diligence one should take when it comes to administering medications.
Search for Relevant Literature – Medication Errors ESSAY
To effectively research the subject of medication errors, I accessed the Nursing and Allied Health database via Capella’s Library. I also utilized the PubMed Central database via National Institutes of Health. I used keywords such as medication errors, nurses, and medication administration. I restricted my searches to include only full text, peer reviewed articles that had been published within the last 5 years. By ensuring the publication is current, I could be assured the information within is up to date with the latest practice guidelines. I verified the articles I chose were published in a journal relevant to nursing, patient safety, and medical health records.
Annotated Bibliography
Gorgich, E. A. C., Barforshan, S., Ghoreishi, G., & Yaghoobi, M. (2016). Investigating the causes of medication errors and strategies to prevention of them from nurses and nursing student viewpoint. Global Journal of Health Science, 8(8), 220-227.
doi: 10.5539/gjhs.v8n8p220 This article discusses the impact medication errors have on both patients and hospitals. Consequences for patients include prolonged hospital stays, injury, and even death. Consequences for hospitals include significant legal and financial costs. The purpose of this article is to analyze the causes for medication errors and present solutions to prevent them. The authors of this article conducted a study which included a large sample of both experienced nurses and nursing students filling out a three part questionnaire including information on their demographics, viewpoints on medication errors, and solutions to preventing medication errors. Medication Errors ESSAY
The results of the study found that nurses viewed heavy workloads, critical health status of patients, nurse to patient ratios, and illegible orders were large contributors to medication errors. The authors support this with numerous studies that reported an increase in medication errors due to nurse fatigue and improper nurse to patient ratios. The authors conclude with suggesting the solution of increasing nursing personnel to decrease the workload on nurses and improve the nurse to patient ratio.
They also recommend continued education on medication administration for nurses and transitioning to electronic health records to resolve legibility issues. This article is relevant to medication errors becau……..
Developing a Health Care Perspective
