Short Staffing Medical Errors

Furthermore, short staffing affects the quality direct care each patient receives. The National Coordinating Council for Medication Error Reporting and Prevention (2012) states an estimated 98,000 individuals die every year from medical errors in the United States. One out of many significant tasks nurses do within their scope of practice is medication administration. Research shows a relationship between short staffing on medication errors: the longer the hours nurses work, the higher the chances of medication errors (Garnett, 2008). (include definition of medication error) Administering medications requires knowledge of patient rights, pharmacological information on the drug, adverse effects, proper dosage calculations, and hospital protocols. When nurses are assigned more patients, they are pressured to give due medications on time. Sometimes due to hunger or fatigue, nurses give the wrong medication to the wrong patient (Frith, Anderson, Tseng, & Fong, 2012).
QA/QI

There is a strong association between short staffing and medication errors since out of all the health care professionals in acute hospital settings, nurses spend longer hours providing direct care to their patients.

They usually are the ones who administer medications. Incidents of medication errors are caused by many factors; however, it is commonly due to nurses who fail to follow proper protocols and lack knowledge for each medication. A study by Frith et al. (2012) demonstrates how an increase in registered nurses (RN) decreases medication errors and an increase in licensed practical nurses (LPN) increases medication errors. Hospitals hire more RNs than LPNs which is why LPNs are most commonly seen working in clinics. Research implies LPNs often ask RNs questions during medication administration hours, and since LPNs are not allowed to make phone calls to the physician, they have to ask an RN to do it (Frith et al.,

2012).