Analyze a Current Health Care Problem or Issue Medication errors represent a significant problem in healthcare, posing risks to patient safety, increasing healthcare costs, and affecting the quality of care provided. This analysis delves into the issue of medication errors, exploring its causes, consequences, and potential solutions, while also considering the ethical implications involved. Elements of the Problem/Issue Medication errors encompass a wide range of mistakes related to prescribing, dispensing, administering, and monitoring medications. These errors can occur at any point in the medication use process and can result in adverse drug events (ADEs), hospitalizations, and even fatalities (Keers et al., 2013). According to a study by …show more content…
Additionally, workload pressures, fatigue, distractions, and high-stress environments can all contribute to errors (Hughes & Blegen, 2008). Analysis Context for Patient Safety Issues The issue of medication errors is prevalent across various healthcare settings, including hospitals, outpatient clinics, long-term care facilities, and pharmacies. Medication errors are important to me as a healthcare professional because they directly impact patient safety and well-being. Every error has the potential to harm patients and undermine their trust in the healthcare system. Populations Affected by Patient Safety Issues Patients are the primary group affected by medication errors, but healthcare providers, including physicians, nurses, pharmacists, and other staff members, are also impacted. Furthermore, healthcare organizations bear financial burdens associated with errors, including legal fees and compensation payments. Examples: A study by James et …show more content…
L., & Cronenwett, L. R. Eds. of the book. (2007). The 'Standard' of the 'Standard'. Preventing medication errors: Quality Chasm Series. National Academies Press. http://www.nasa.edu/item/nasa.html>. Hughes, R. G., & Blegen, M. A. a. The adage of the adage of the adage of the adage of the adage of the adage of the adage of the medication administration and safety. in patient safety and quality: An evidence-based handbook for nurses (pp. 1). 585-612). See the corresponding section. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (US). James, J. T. (2013). The 'Secondary'. a new, evidence-based estimate of patient harms associated with hospital care. Journal of Patient Safety, 9(3), 122-128. Kaushal, R., Shojania, K. G., & Bates, D. W. (2001). Effects of computerized physician order entry and clinical decision support systems on medication safety: a systematic review. Archives of Internal Medicine, 161(3), 377-382. Keers, R. N., Williams, S. D., Cooke, J., & Ashcroft, D. M. (2013). Prevalence and nature of medication administration errors in health care settings: A systematic review of direct observational evidence. Annals of Pharmacotherapy, 47(2), 237-256. Makary, M. A., Daniel, M., & Michael, D. (2016). medical error—the third leading cause of death in the U.S. BMJ, 353,
In conclusion the study showed a decrease in reported medication errors by 20% (Truitt et al. (2016). The introduction of these systems has greatly changed the delivery of medication in hospitals. Medication administration errors in hospitals put the patient in danger and cause great harm, depending on the severity. It is so important that medication errors do not happen in the hospital. It may not be possible to eliminate all errors, but reducing the amount of errors would benefit
Statistics show that between 1979 and 2006, there were more than sixty two million deaths investigated and of those, 244,388 were caused by a hospital medication error (Cox, 2010). The following information highlights medication errors made in three facilities in the United States with the drug Heparin. The focus of this paper will be on how the medication errors were made, what could have prevented them, the legal ramifications from the mistakes, and changes that were implemented to eliminate potential future risks.
The evidenced based problem that was identified for this research assignment, was that nurses were causing multiple medication errors in a clinical and practice setting. According to the authors Wolf, Hicks, and Serembus (2006), a medication error is 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 the health care professional, patient, or consumer. It is very important for experienced nurses and nursing professors to identify medication errors to prevent them from harming the patient. Some of the errors that were identified were not reported because registered nurses didn’t want their peers to think they were irresponsible (Unver, Tastan, & Akbayrak, 2012). Nurse shaming did not help increase positive outcomes of reporting errors among nursing students and registered nurses (Harding & Petrick, 2008). When medication errors were reported they were not being reported properly, and the consequences for improper reporting were not taken seriously.
The most common kind of medication error is administering the wrong medication or giving wrong doses. A medication error is any error that happens to patients whether they suffer any harmful results or not. Inappropriate nurses-to-patients ratio should be taken into consideration because it can cause medication errors. A new study shows that every year about 210,000-400,000 people who were admitted to the hospital die due to medication error; it also shows that is is “the third leading cause of death behind heart disease and cancer”(MacDonald). For instance, an interview was done with Nurse Carol, a retired nurse; she said that she made a medication error while administering medication to one of her patients. She said that she was rushing and accidentally gave Cozaar to one of her patients instead of Colace. Cozaar is often used for high blood pressure and Colace is for constipation. She said her patient’s pressure dropped very low after taking the medication; she realized then that she gave the patient the wrong medication. Nurse Carol also said that if she did no...
Medication Errors one of the biggest issues happening in an acute care setting today . Although, Medications are given based on the five rights principles: the right patient, right medication, right route, right dose, and right time. Even with the five rights principles medication errors are still happening. However, some of the errors that are occurring are due to poor order transcriptions and documentation, drug interactions, proper drug name and not paying enough attention and environment factors.
A medication error is any preventable event that may cause or lead to inappropriate medication use or harm to a patient (NCCMERP 2014). The death rate for medication errors averages around 7,000 deaths per year. Lawsuits for medication errors were mainly made against registered nurses because nurses are the last people to check a medication before it is administered. 426 medication error related lawsuits were made against registered nurses. (RightDiagnosis 2014).
Agyemang, REO, and A While. "Medication errors: types, causes and impact on nursing practice." British Journal of Nursing (BJN) 19.6 (2010): 380-385. CINAHL Plus with Full Text. EBSCO. Web. 7 Mar. 2011.
Medication errors made by medical staff bring about consequences of epidemic proportions. Medical staff includes everyone from providers (medical doctors, nurse practitioners and physician assistants) to pharmacists to nurses (registered and practical). Medication errors account for almost 98,000 deaths in the United States yearly (Tzeng, Yin, & Schneider, 2013). This number only reflects the United States, a small percentage in actuality when looking at the whole world. Medical personnel must take responsibility for their actions and with this responsibility comes accountability in their duties of medication administration. Nurses play a major role in medication error prevention and education and this role distinguishes them as reporters of errors.
Ethical dilemmas are the issues that nurses have to encounter everyday regardless of where their workplaces are. These problems significantly impact both health care providers and patients. Patient safety is the most priority in nursing and it can be jeopardized by a slight mistake. Medication errors and reporting medication errors have been major problems in health care. Errors with medications have been found to be the most common cause of adverse drug effects (Brady, Malone, Fleming, 2009). Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago conducted a research in 2012 that approximately forty percent of the hospitalized clients have encountered a medication error (Lahue et al., 2012). A nurse’s role is to identify and report these medication errors immediately in order to stop or minimize any possible harm to the patients. Ethical moral dilemmas arise when reporting the mistakes that have been made by one’s own colleagues, acquaintances, peers, or physicians.
A newly employed critical care nurse was just about to finish a 12-hour night shift when she realized she had one more patient to administer medication to. It was the busiest Friday night shift she has ever worked due to a poor nurse-patient ratio, and the workload felt impossible. She gave her last patient the properly prescribed medication, but failed to notice that the physician hastily wrote an updated dosage for a high risk medication, Digoxin. The patient’s heart rate began to slow down and life-saving procedures had to be performed. Medication errors are “any preventable event that may cause, or lead, to inappropriate medication use or patient harm while the medication is in the control of the health care professional, patient, or consumer (About Medication Errors, 2015)”.
Tzeng, H., Yin, C., & Schneider, T. E. (2013). Medication Error-Related Issues In Nursing Practice. MEDSURG Nursing, 22(1), 13-50.
Medication errors are the leading cause of morbidity and preventable death in hospitals (Adams). In fact, approximately 1.5 million Americans are injured each year as a result of medication errors in hospitals (Foote). Not only are medication errors harmful to patients but medication errors are very expensive for hospitals. Medication errors cost America’s health care system 3.5 billion dollars per year (Foote).Errors in medication administration occurs when one of the five rights of medication administration is omitted. The five rights are: a) the right dose, b) the right medication, c) the right patient, d) the right route of administration, and e) the right time of delivery (Adams). Medication administration is an essential part of the nursing profession, taking up to forty percent of a nurse’s time in providing nursing care (Fowler). Consequently, nurses are commonly held accountable for medication errors. To improve the safety of a vital aspect of nursing care, bar code scanning was introduced to reduce errors in medication administration. Although bar code scanning has its advantageous aspects, there are also disadvantageous qualities.
O’Shea, E (1999) Factors contributing to medication errors: a literature review. Journal of Clinical Nursing. 8, 5,496-503.
Baccalaureate nurses are responsible for providing and ensure our patients safety. The knowledge from others mistakes can help informs nurses of extra precautions that we can take to ensure our patient’s safety. Risk Analysis and Implication for practice course helped me understand the steps I as a nurse can take as well as the facilities I work for to help reduce the number of medication errors that occur. Interviewing the pharmacist help me get a better insight to what facilities already have in place to help prevent medication errors. However like most things you have to have educated and compassionate caring staff to enforce and follow the guidelines set in place.
Imagine yourself visiting a physician for your monthly checkups; your physician prescribes you a medicine for your lungs, but the pharmacist thought the written prescription is actually a medication for depression as they almost share the same spelling, making you experience headache for a week. Although this sounds unbelievable, mistaken prescription incidents can really happen right even in our best hospitals. In popular terms, we call this medical error. Although we often acknowledge medical errors can happen on physicians’ everyday life, which by the way includes nurse, pharmacist, and surgeon. It should not be treated as if it is simple medical errors that cannot avoided since according to certain Journal of Patient Safety,