Administering medications to patients is a daily task performed by almost all nurses. In the Bachelor of Nursing curriculum, the 7 rights and 3 checks of medication administration is taught, practiced and performed by all nursing students to ensure proper habits are developed. The problem occurs when health care providers are no longer under supervision of an instructor, and short cuts are acquired. These short cuts, although time saving, ultimately cause more complications for the patient and the health care system. As a group, we have found that CARNA’s Medication Administration Guideline (2016) is not being implemented or enforced as it should to prevent medication errors. One area we noticed to be the most concerning was the storage and
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The first strength we noticed is the copious amount of resources available to staff. There may however be an issue with having too many resources and the staff is overwhelmed. Our first strategy applies this strength in a way that is not overwhelming by making a simple medication administration reminder on each of the WOWs. The next facilitator is the readily available equipment such as the WOWs. There Workstations on Wheels are an excellent tool because they provide safe storing of medications and are convenient for nurses. The nurses can have their patient assignment’s medications and the computer screen to safely complete the 7 rights and 3 checks all in one place. We want to utilize these WOWs as part of our second strategy. Another strength is the new CoAct nursing strategy. CoAct is a team nursing approach that involves “hubs” consisting of Registered Nurses, Licenses Practical Nurses and Health Care Assistance. These three members work with the patient to provide the best care. This team approach encourages nurses to collaborate with other staff on the unit about safe medication administration. This unit also has a very proactive and involved clinical nurse educator. We see this as a big strength because a positive attitude about guideline implementation can reflect the attitude of the staff on the
The first strength we noticed is the copious amount of resources available to staff. There may however be an issue with having too many resources and the staff is overwhelmed. Our first strategy applies this strength in a way that is not overwhelming by making a simple medication administration reminder on each of the WOWs. The next facilitator is the readily available equipment such as the WOWs. There Workstations on Wheels are an excellent tool because they provide safe storing of medications and are convenient for nurses. The nurses can have their patient assignment’s medications and the computer screen to safely complete the 7 rights and 3 checks all in one place. We want to utilize these WOWs as part of our second strategy. Another strength is the new CoAct nursing strategy. CoAct is a team nursing approach that involves “hubs” consisting of Registered Nurses, Licenses Practical Nurses and Health Care Assistance. These three members work with the patient to provide the best care. This team approach encourages nurses to collaborate with other staff on the unit about safe medication administration. This unit also has a very proactive and involved clinical nurse educator. We see this as a big strength because a positive attitude about guideline implementation can reflect the attitude of the staff on the