Medication Errors In Healthcare Research

Adverse drug events and medication errors are major safety issues in the medical field. According to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, adverse drug events are defined as harm experienced by a patient as a result of exposure to a medication. Also defined by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, a medication error is an error at any step along the pathway that begins when a clinician prescribes a medication and ends when the patient actually receives the medication. Even though this does not mean that there has been an error or insufficient quality care, almost 5% of hospitalized patients are affected by adverse drug events and this makes it the most common inpatient error (Agency for healthcare research and quality). There are different kinds of adverse drug events such as preventable adverse drug events, potential adverse drug events, and ameliorable adverse drug events (agency for healthcare research and quality). Each of these have to do with medication errors and early detection can reduce the level of harm to the patient. Side effects can also be known as adverse drug events or nonpreventable adverse drug event (Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality). There are four steps involved before a hospitalized patient can receive a medication …show more content…
According to the book Fundamentals of Nursing, these are systems that are linked to other systems and controls the dispensing of all medications. The system is locked by a security code and each nurse has a code to enter to get into the system. AMDS allow you to select the patient and their drug profile before the AMDS dispenses a medication. The system then records the medication to the patient’s records and applies the nurse’s name to the record. Many systems also require the nurse to scan the medication with a bar code scanner before administering the medication as well. (Fundamentals of nursing p.