Dale Lewis
California Baptist University The nursing profession has had a long tradition of community trust. Nurses aid in patient care and promote health in many ways; educating, cleaning, rehabilitating, communicating and treating are just a few of the key roles nurses play in facilitating health in the community they work for. However, there is a major role in nursing that, if taken for granted and done without the utmost care, could endanger the lives they are trying to heal. Medication errors happen, and, unfortunately, they happen often. In the next few pages, I would like to examine two scholarly bodies of work looking at medication errors in the nursing profession and reflect on how those studies impact me and my future as a practicing nurse.
Medication errors in the hospital setting have been recognized as a serious threat to patients’ safety leading to increased morbidity and mortality (Härkänen, Turunen, Saano, & Vehviläinen-Julkunen, 2016). The team behind PhD student Marja Härkänen’s Detecting medication errors: Analysis based on hospital’s incident reports looks at one Finland hospital and how medication errors were found and reported. Of all the 1,617 …show more content…
(2015). Detecting medication errors: Analysis based on a hospital's incident reports. International Journal Of Nursing Practice, 21(2), 141-146. doi:10.1111/ijn.12227
Heneka, N., Shaw, T., Rowett, D., & Phillips, J. L. (2016). Quantifying the burden of opioid medication errors in adult oncology and palliative care settings: A systematic review. Palliative Medicine, 30(6), 520-532. doi:10.1177/0269216315615002
Parse, R., R. (2014). The Humanbecoming Paradigm: A Transformational Worldview. Pittsburgh, PA: Discovery International.
Potter, P. A., Perry, A. G., Hall, A., & Stockert, P. A. (2013). Fundamentals of Nursing (8th ed.). St. Louis, MI: Elsevier