Medication Errors Medical errors are the third leading cause of death in the United States. Included in these, are mistakes involving medication administration. Throughout this paper, different reasons for medication errors will be examined. Included will be those made by healthcare students as well as errors resulting from distractions and interruptions. Also discussed will be ways to aid in preventing medication errors by students and other clinical staff.
Discussion
Medication errors can happen for many different reasons, most of which are avoidable. These errors can be the result of the direct care staff, such as the nurse, administering a medication to the incorrect patient or, giving an incorrect dose. The nursing staff alone …show more content…
According to the study by Hess, Gaunt, and Grissinger (2016) these errors can be from the student making the mistake unaccompanied, or while the instructor or preceptor is present. In the study, under the specific subset of nursing students, 92.1% of the mistakes were made while the instructor was present. These mistakes included giving the incorrect medication to a patient and not having co-signatures on high alert medications therefore not being able to verify the correct dose was …show more content…
These distractions cause the nurse to lose focus while checking the medications leaving them susceptible to making errors. According to Schub (2016), medication administration is one of the most frequently interrupted nursing tasks subsequently increasing the risk for an error to occur by up to 60%. Distractions can include side conversations, excessive noise, patients and their families, other staff, and an overloaded or busy workday. Some places help with these distractions by having designated areas or signage stating medication administration is taking place.
One example of the effects of being distracted is the nurse confusing one medication with another. “A woman in a nursing home was mistakenly administered a Novasone scalp lotion in her left eye. The Novasone lotion was mistaken for a lubricating eye drop, which was similar in shape and size” (Naunton, Nor, Bartholomaeus, Thomas, and Kosari, 2016, p. 1). In this particular, case the patient did not have any adverse effects from the mistake, but it does show how distractions can directly affect the
Discussion
Medication errors can happen for many different reasons, most of which are avoidable. These errors can be the result of the direct care staff, such as the nurse, administering a medication to the incorrect patient or, giving an incorrect dose. The nursing staff alone …show more content…
According to the study by Hess, Gaunt, and Grissinger (2016) these errors can be from the student making the mistake unaccompanied, or while the instructor or preceptor is present. In the study, under the specific subset of nursing students, 92.1% of the mistakes were made while the instructor was present. These mistakes included giving the incorrect medication to a patient and not having co-signatures on high alert medications therefore not being able to verify the correct dose was …show more content…
These distractions cause the nurse to lose focus while checking the medications leaving them susceptible to making errors. According to Schub (2016), medication administration is one of the most frequently interrupted nursing tasks subsequently increasing the risk for an error to occur by up to 60%. Distractions can include side conversations, excessive noise, patients and their families, other staff, and an overloaded or busy workday. Some places help with these distractions by having designated areas or signage stating medication administration is taking place.
One example of the effects of being distracted is the nurse confusing one medication with another. “A woman in a nursing home was mistakenly administered a Novasone scalp lotion in her left eye. The Novasone lotion was mistaken for a lubricating eye drop, which was similar in shape and size” (Naunton, Nor, Bartholomaeus, Thomas, and Kosari, 2016, p. 1). In this particular, case the patient did not have any adverse effects from the mistake, but it does show how distractions can directly affect the