Medication Administration Safety As a nurse we have many responsibilities, with one of the main responsibilities being keeping our patient safe “patient safety”. While patient safety can mean more than one thing, medication administration means the most and has the ultimate responsibility. According to National Coordinating Council for Medication Error Reporting and Prevention the Council defines a medication error 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. Such events may be related to professional practice, health care products, procedures, and systems, including prescribing; order communication;
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Interruptions affect nurses’ ability to think, causing a lack of focus. This increases the nurse to be stress and feel frustrated. Another form of distraction that led to errors was the unavailability of medications at the time of administration, requiring the nurse to move away from the patient to look for the medication in a stock cupboard (Agyemang & While, 2010). Poor communication among team members is a contributing factor to medication administration errors. As a healthcare team communication is important, miscommunication among the doctors, pharmacists, and nurses can cause medical errors. Heavy workloads is the most common reason for a nurse to make a medication error. According to Agyemang & While, heavy workload, lack of trained staff, understaffing, long drug rounds, long working days and busy wards are contextual factors contributing to errors (Agyemang & While, 2010). It is known that lack of staff makes people rush and pay less attention to their tasks, which increases the risk for medication errors (Härkänen et al., 2013). Other factors that contribute to the risk of a nurse making a medication error are lack of knowledge of medication, fatigue, and drug miscalculations. Nurses are usually the last individuals who stand between the medication and the patient. They must be acutely aware of all aspects of drug safety: safe dosages, safe and …show more content…
As medication administration is probably the highest risk task a nurse can perform, many policies and guidelines have been devised to help prevent medication errors occurring. Most nurses will be familiar with the five rights of medication administration: the right patient, drug, dose, route and time (Elliott & Liu, 2010). There have been studies conducted to make recommendations for policies would allow for safe medication administration. According to Choo, for a nurse to verify the five rights, legible prescriptions, a conductive environment without unnecessary disruptions and adequate staffing patterns must be present (Choo et al., 2010). The latest health care technology and using the patient as a health care team member to ensure care are recommendations that were found in studies to prevent medication errors. When safety recommendations are implemented there is an increase in patient safety with decrease incident of medication error. A common medication error is administering to a wrong patient. A patient can be asked to verify his or her name. Verbal verification of the ‘right patient’ is one method of correct identification, but it should not be the only method used. On the patient’s wristband and medication chart should be both name and medical record number that can be used to verify
Interruptions affect nurses’ ability to think, causing a lack of focus. This increases the nurse to be stress and feel frustrated. Another form of distraction that led to errors was the unavailability of medications at the time of administration, requiring the nurse to move away from the patient to look for the medication in a stock cupboard (Agyemang & While, 2010). Poor communication among team members is a contributing factor to medication administration errors. As a healthcare team communication is important, miscommunication among the doctors, pharmacists, and nurses can cause medical errors. Heavy workloads is the most common reason for a nurse to make a medication error. According to Agyemang & While, heavy workload, lack of trained staff, understaffing, long drug rounds, long working days and busy wards are contextual factors contributing to errors (Agyemang & While, 2010). It is known that lack of staff makes people rush and pay less attention to their tasks, which increases the risk for medication errors (Härkänen et al., 2013). Other factors that contribute to the risk of a nurse making a medication error are lack of knowledge of medication, fatigue, and drug miscalculations. Nurses are usually the last individuals who stand between the medication and the patient. They must be acutely aware of all aspects of drug safety: safe dosages, safe and …show more content…
As medication administration is probably the highest risk task a nurse can perform, many policies and guidelines have been devised to help prevent medication errors occurring. Most nurses will be familiar with the five rights of medication administration: the right patient, drug, dose, route and time (Elliott & Liu, 2010). There have been studies conducted to make recommendations for policies would allow for safe medication administration. According to Choo, for a nurse to verify the five rights, legible prescriptions, a conductive environment without unnecessary disruptions and adequate staffing patterns must be present (Choo et al., 2010). The latest health care technology and using the patient as a health care team member to ensure care are recommendations that were found in studies to prevent medication errors. When safety recommendations are implemented there is an increase in patient safety with decrease incident of medication error. A common medication error is administering to a wrong patient. A patient can be asked to verify his or her name. Verbal verification of the ‘right patient’ is one method of correct identification, but it should not be the only method used. On the patient’s wristband and medication chart should be both name and medical record number that can be used to verify