...Medication errors are a very serious patient safety problem. They can be described as any mistake or incorrect judgement of a prescription, in dispensing or administering medication. It can be the mistake of a doctor, nurse or pharmacist. In the USA the Institute of medicine reported that 44,000 to 98,000 deaths were caused by medical errors yearly. 7,000 of them due to medication errors. In addition, Johnson and Bootman calculated 116 million visits to doctors, 17 million visit to Emergency Department, 8 million hospital admissions and 3 million long-term care admissions per year due to medication errors (Kwabena 2004). There are three people involved in medicine. The doctor who orders the medicine, the pharmacist who supplies the medicine and the nurse who gives the medicine. Any mistakes in their roles will result in medication errors. Thus, there are...
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...Reducing Medication Errors In Hospitals Patient centered care and patient safety are the most important roles in nursing. “Serious medication errors are common in hospitals and often occur during order transcription or administration of medication” (Poon et al., 2010. p. 1). According to Seibert (2014), medication errors and related deaths cost the health care system billions of dollars yearly and that at least one error a day happens in all hospitals. “An estimated 450,000 adverse drug events medication errors that result in patient harm occur annually, approximately 25% of which are preventable” (Seibert, 2014. p. 1). One important aspect of nursing is drug administration. It is a multidisciplinary task including doctors, pharmacist...
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...Literature Search Paper NUR443 September 19, 2011 Professor Dina Faucher Literature Search Paper Numerous studies have been conducted to prove the relationship of shift work and fatigue and the results noted on medication errors. Two articles were chosen using the University Library, a qualitative research study and a quantitative research study from peer reviewed articles through the use of databases such as EBSCOhost, ProQuest, and Gale Powersearch. To research this topic, the query tool utilizing terminology such as shift work, fatigue, and medication errors was used to narrow the search. The intent of this paper is to identify the difference between research study articles versus plain journal articles, the type of nursing journals, and if the article is peer reviewed. EBSCOhost allows one to narrow the search, by selecting the mode as Boolean search, the source type as Academic Journal, the subjects as errors and patient safety, the publication as Journal of Nursing Management, AORN Journal, and Journal of Nursing Education, and finally the database as CINAHL plus with full text reduced the results to 259 articles. The articles are in order from most relevant to least relevant. Effects of working conditions of intravenous medication errors in Japanese hospital, written by Seki and Yamazaki was the most relevant article posted that encompassed the use of a quantitative research method to support the educational content. According to Burns and Grove (2011) “quantitative...
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...Honesty/Cheating Policy. By affixing this statement to the title page of my paper, I certify that I have not cheated or plagiarized in the process of completing this assignment. If it is found that cheating and/or plagiarism did take place in the writing of this paper, I understand the possible consequences of the act/s, which could include expulsion from Indiana Wesleyan University. Thesis The health care industry each years spends millions in medication errors that could be prevented. By implementing a data entry system that would allow access by medical professionals and pharmacies to collaborate and reduce the chance of medication errors dramatically. The data systems are pricy but when compared to the cost of medication errors and loss of lives it saves most medical establishments money. Annotated Bibliography The need for data entry systems to reduce medical errors Rinda, J. (2012). integration helps clinicians reduce medication errors. Health Management Technology , 33 (10), 12-13. With the risks of medication errors endangering lives, the technology has been gearing towards linking smart infusion pumps with health information platforms. Electronic health records have already been developed and are currently being used in some areas. This can lead to reductions in health care costs and increase in workflow. The medication errors could result in 400,000 preventable injuries each year. 1.5 million errors occur in the U.S. each year, resulting in $77 billion in cost annually...
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...nursing practice and allows for the delivery of optimal nursing care. Evidence-Based Nursing (EBN) involves the process of researching and implementing proven evidence in providing better patient care and is crucial as the role of the nurse is ever expanding (Banning, 2005). This essay will demonstrate that as a student nurse, the author has gained the necessary skills to conduct an evidence-based literature search and review and implement that knowledge into practice. Starting with a brief discussion on EBN it will go on to identify a suitable research question. During a placement on a medical ward the author noticed that nurses experienced many interruptions whilst conducting medication rounds and this review will consider ways to minimise interruptions and thus improve patient safety. Using the PICO acronym a suitable research question was formulated, ‘do interruptions during medication rounds increase the drugs administration errors made by nurses?’ A short description of the literature search is given and a summary of findings is presented in tabular form. Five original articles were selected and one chosen to critically appraise (see appendix 2). The rest of the essay will focus on reviewing the five articles. It will furthermore demonstrate the link between interruptions during drug rounds and patient and nurse safety, consider the implications of the studies for nursing practice and include the nurse’s perspective of these interruptions. Dale (2005) defines EBP as ‘the...
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...Running head: PRACTICE PROBLEM: MEDICATION ERRORS Practice Problem: Medication Errors Amy Courcier Grand Canyon University NRS-433 V Christine Thompson-Sanxter September 22, 2012 Career progression: preventing drug errors. Ashurst, A. (2008). Career progression: preventing drug errors. Nursing & Residential Care, 10(10), 498-501. Abstract: Making errors in drug administration can have serious consequences for the patient and the nurse involved. In the second of two articles Adrian Ashurst discusses the ways that risk can be minimized and drug errors prevented. Nurses' experiences of drug administration errors Schelbred, A., & Nord, R. (2007). Nurses' experiences of drug administration errors. Journal Of Advanced Nursing, 60(3), 317-324. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2648.2007.04437.x Abstract: This paper is a report of a study to describe the experiences of nurses who had committed serious medication errors, the meaning these experiences carry, and what kind of help and support they received after committing their error. Background. Medication administration is an important nursing task. Work overload, combined with increased numbers and dosages of medication prescribed, puts nurses at risk of making serious errors. A drug error has the potential for disastrous consequences for patients. What is sometimes disregarded is the effect on the nurse involved. The majority of research on nurses and medication errors is framed within biomedicine, law and management. Methods...
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...The research conducted in this study focuses on how medication errors and how they are caused by doctors not being educated and trained in medical colleges about the administration and prescribing of medicine. The other problem shown in this article is that colleges within the United Kingdom are showing a lack of these special educational studies in medicine. The problem of the study is very important to Administrators because patient safety is one of the main priorities in any health care facility. Administrator overlook the progression of patient care and by seeing this study about medication errors, this should grab their attention. By knowing that doctors are not properly prescribing medications to patients, administration can take a deeper look into their faculties and makes sure all professional health care providers are up to date and fully trained in the process of prescribing medicine. The purpose of this study is to bring strong insight in the reader. Also, readers must realize that medication error dangerous and that they can happen anywhere. Not all doctors have the full education they need in prescribing medication to them. The research deals mostly on the research of the lack of education and training in medical colleges and how it influences poor medication errors. After reviewing the study, the main research question would be what causes medication errors and how can it be fixed? There are more than one hypotheses of this study. After reviewing the possible...
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...Medication Safety Patient safety is the first priority concern for leadership in all health care organizations. The medication delivery process is the most common intervention in health care system. For that reason medication safety is considered the most challenging and complex process in improving patient care and safety during hospitalization. Medication-related errors are serious and occur at a rate of about one per patient per day (Allan, 1990). It is a harmful practice affecting patient’s health and life. Some of these errors may result in death or inefficiency of organs functions. In addition, medication errors may financially affect the health care organization due to long patient stay in the hospital for advanced treatment (Presto, 2004). This research paper will provide highlights on medication errors definition, importance of safety during medication process, factors contributing to medication errors and effective factors in preventing medication errors. Medication errors were defined as a fault in medication that may occur at any stage of the process in ordering or delivering medications (Bates, Boyle, Vliet, Scheider & Leape, 1995), either an injury occurred or the potential for injury was present (Bates et al, 1999). These errors could occur in dosing error, which is common (Lesar, Briceland & Stein, 1997), or wrong route, or wrong time, or error in medicine rate and omission error (O’Shea, 1998). Also there are some situations such as missing a dose of...
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...Prevention of Medication Errors in Nursing Practice Breton Sloop NU 332 Foundations of Nursing November 11, 2015 Teresa Faust Mary is a critical care nurse at a busy urban hospital, who is trying to catch up on her morning medication administrations. Her patient had required several procedures that morning, due to an alteration in his condition, and now Mary is behind schedule. The patient is intubated, so she decides to crush the pills, and administer them through his nasogastric tube. The patient’s medication is already late, but in her dash to give the medication as quickly as possible, she fails to notice the “Do Not Crush” warning on the electronic medication administration record (MAR). She then crushes an extended-release calcium...
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...A study entitled, “A Controlled Trial of Smart Infusion Pumps to Improve Medication Safety in Critically Ill Patients” was completed (Rothschild et al., 2005). The authors’ purpose was to “assess the impact of smart pumps with integrated decision support software on the incidence and nature of medication errors and adverse drug events” (Rothschild et al., 2005). The study was conducted in 2002 at a large tertiary care medical center in Boston, Massachusetts. More specifically, the study focused on patients who had been admitted to two cardiac intensive care units and two cardiac step-down units. Many medical centers are transitioning to use of smart pumps, in hopes of reducing medication errors and adverse drug events. Summary The goal...
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...Drug Errors Introduction Administration of medicines is a key element of nursing care. Every day some 7000 doses of medication are administered in a typical NHS hospital (Audit commission 2002). Drug administration forms a major part of the clinical nurses role. Medicines are prescribed by the doctor and dispensed by the pharmacist but responsibility for correct administration rests with the registered nurse (O'Shea 1999). Each registered nurse is accountable for his/her practice. This practice includes preparing, checking and administering medications, updating knowledge of medications, monitoring the effectiveness of treatment, reporting adverse drug reactions and teaching patients about the drugs that they receive (O'Shea 1999). The patient is expected to receive the correct medication at each drug round but several studies have shown that this is not always the case (Raju et al 1988, Ferner 1995). Medication errors do occur and are a persistent problem associated with nursing practice (O'Shea 1999). The aim of this paper is to answer the question: Why are nurses still continuing to make drug errors? In order to answer this question this paper shall examine the guidelines that nurses must adhere to when administering drugs, shall provide a definition of a drug errors, look at reasons why drug errors occur and approaches that are aimed at reducing drug errors on the ward. There are a number of pieces of legislation that relate to prescribing, supply, storage and administration...
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...of Care Electronic Medical Records (EMR) can increase quality of care in many ways. Unlike paper records, EMR is available to multiple members of the healthcare team in different locations, all at the same time. EMR makes it easy for caregivers to have all of a new patient’s previous visit information at their fingertips, which can help with obtaining a more accurate history upon admission. An accurate history will help caregivers make better decisions when planning a patient’s care. Because records are stored in a database instead of on paper, they are safe from natural disasters, forgery, loss, or damage. Many, many years of records can be stored in a relatively small space, which will negate the need for rows and rows of filing cabinets, and microfiche. This makes them easier to manage and retrieve. Less paper also means neater workspaces and better organization in the workplace, and because records are available on the database from multiple locations, the need for faxing or mailing records is decreased, increasing security. EMR can also be used to collect data for Quality Improvement processes, and an EMR system can have pop-up alerts built in to notify caregivers of best practices, allergies, and drug interactions. EMR’s that also have a medication bar code scanning system built in will help to reduce med errors by alerting nurses to wrong patient/wrong dose/ wrong time errors. Electronic Medical Records can reduce patient’s wait times, because it wouldn’t be necessary...
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...Abstract Patient safety and Medical errors are one of the major concerns of healthcare industry. Our group decided to throw more light on the present situation of this issue. In this paper we have given a clear picture about the types of errors, how these errors occur and towards the end we have discussed on how to prevent these errors. The implementation of the actions to prevent errors discussed in our paper will help in improving and reducing them. In doing so, we can be leaders in an effort to provide the best care possible to all Americans. We have also discussed about the importance of patient safety. Reducing errors and improving how we respond to error is but a subset of the all-important issue of quality of care. TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction ……………………………………………………………………………... 5 Regulatory Authority……………………………………………………………………. 5 Patient safety ……………………………………………………………………………. 6 Medical Errors ………………………………………………………………………….. 7 Why medical errors occur? .............................................................................................. 8 When errors are not reported ………………………………………………………….. 8 Types of Medical Errors ………………………………………………………………… 9 Sentinel Events ……………………………………………………………………….. 9 Diagnosis or evaluation ………………………………………………………………. 9 Medical decision-making …………………………………………………………… 10 Treatment and medication …………………………………….…………………..… 10 Dispensing ……………………………………………………………………………11 Procedural complications...
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...Nurses are the fine line between medication administration errors and medication administration error prevention. Nurses should be required to go above and beyond to avoid medication errors for the safety of the patient. This paper includes studies on the nurses knowledge, adherence and opinions on two-nurse double-check method for medication administration. The research concludes the evidence proved to be insignificant. Keywords: time management, medication errors, patient safety, double-check medication administration THE LINK BETWEEN INDEPENDENT DOUBLE CHECK AND PATIENT SAFETY Introduction The risk of medication errors will always exist, despite the many methods of preventing medication administration errors. The steps of the medication administration process are vital for patient safety. Unfortunately due to the lack of nurses in hospitals, nurses tend to skip steps of safe medication administration because of patient load and the time required to perform the steps. Are double checks essential in preventing medication errors? A diabetic patient on the medical-surgical floor needs the...
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...recommended by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and the National Quality Forum. CPOE - Computerized Provider Order Entry Computerized Provider Order Entry or CPOE is a computer application that accepts physician’s orders electronically and replaces handwritten orders and prescriptions. It is considered one of the key features of an Electronic Health Record (EHR). CPOE’s can improve a patient’s safety, patient quality of care and physician’s efficiency. “CPOE is recommended by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and the National Quality Forum as one of the 30 “Safe Practices for Better Healthcare.” The Leapfrog Group also recommends CPOE implementation as one of its first three recommended “leaps” for improving patient safety” (Computerized Provider Entry, p1p7). There are many benefits that CPOE’s provide such as eliminating problems with handwriting, reducing storage space, since they have taken the place of traditional paper-based charts, reducing medication errors, faster transmission of prescriptions to the pharmacy. The CPOE also offers alerts and decision making benefits to the physician. It can compare a prescribed medication to a patient’s allergy list and other medications that the patient is currently taking. If the CPOE system finds anything wrong, it will give an alert to the doctor to re-exam the orders the doctor has written. It can also provide the doctor with a list of alternative medications that might be better to...
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