Professionals like doctors, nurse practitioners, nurses and others are well prepared on when to medicate patients. It is important to be familiarized and understand about the pharmacodynamics of the medication. Also, it needs to be understood medication need, how and when to give it, dosage and possible side effects. According to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA, 2009), medication error accounts for 1.3 million injuries each year in the United States due to the wrong drug, dose, timing of administration, or wrong route of administration. Always keep in mind that route of administration varies depending on health conditions.…
• The use of technology at the healthcare setting with electronic records, hand held devices, and easily accessible drug reference manuals can help screen for possible drug–drug interactions before prescribing or administering medication (Delafuente, 2003, p. 141). • Providing training courses for healthcare providers to participate in to prevent and teach the importance of drug-drug interactions.…
In David Badcott’s position paper “Big Pharma: A Former Insider’s View,” Badcott makes the assumption that the future of healthcare will predominately focus on the administration pharmaceutical drugs, which is not true because drugs can cause complications in individuals and thus require medical attention from healthcare practitioners. Badcott implies that the services of healthcare professionals will become obsolete. This implication is not true because there are healthcare services that do not primarily focus on treatment with medicinal drugs. Although pharmaceutical drugs play a huge role in the current healthcare industry, the role of the medical practitioner is as equally important. Badcott states the effectiveness of newer pharmaceutical drugs allow for the reduction of “total health expenditures by lowering the need for other types of medical services” (Badcott 252).…
Other ways to avoid medications errors is follow the proper medication reconciliation, double check of all procedures, pay close attentions to similar patients names, document everything, insure a proper storage of medication…
I chose this article because in my personal life, I have interacted with healthcare professionals that want to prescribe depression medication without listening to their patient. Not only do SSRIs have adverse effects in the older adult population, a more whole person assessment is not given to get to the root of the problem. SSRI are extremely beneficial, but addressing the real problem i.e.; social isolation, polypharmacy, or loss of autonomy, may prevent healthcare complications. B. Direct Quotation from the Article Type or copy and paste the exact words. “Elderly patients are more likely to develop hyponatremia with the use of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs).…
Home Health Aide: Digestion The three most common digestive disorders in American seniors are constipation, diverticulosis, and gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD). WebMD estimates that nearly 40 percent of seniors over 60 will experience at least one of these disorders. There are many different causes behind digestive disorders in seniors. However, there are some common lifestyle changes that can significantly improve most of them. For example, smoking weakens the muscular flap (esophageal sphincter) that prevents stomach acid from splashing up into the esophagus.…
Medication error can be defined as an unintended action that results in a harmful undesired outcome (Karen, 2011, p. 1). According to Choo (2013) medication error is described as a preventable action that causes harm and does not achieve the desired medication administration outcome (p. 245). Both definitions identify the intention of medication error to be an action that is done unconsciously, as a result the action has a negative aftereffect. Medication errors can occur at any stage from prescribing of medication to administering the medication (Choo, 2013, p. 245). Not only may the medication error generate an unintended result, it can also lead to death of the patient and other further life changing complications.…
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).…
Statistics also state that nearly 1% of hospital admissions have an adverse drug event (Runciman, Roughead, Semple, & Adams, 2003)As a graduate nurse looking to continually improve and develop my practice I need to develop strategies that will help me progress towards this goal. This goal will help to prevent some of those adverse drug event and prevent some of the medication admissions entirely. Being in a position that is directly responsible and accountable for the administration of the medications in a lot of the cases means that I need to continually strive to improve and maintain a high level of medication management. I have already mentioned a few strategies that I believe will help me to continually develop those skills to a desired level. familiarising myself with the medication will help to reduce the risk of a medication error slipping through and effecting the patient.…
According to Stratis Health article, a great number of medication errors occur during the transferring processes of patients from hospitals to nursing homes. Majority of them are preventable. Implementing medication reconciliation in nursing home has been creating big effects on improving the discharge procedures and patients’ safety. Medication reconciliation assists nursing homes in preventing errors by comparing patients’ up-to-date lists of medications with the hospital discharged or transferred orders to identify discrepancies. At nursing homes, the processes of medication reconciliation follow step by step procedure.…
Elder Services: Drug and Substance Abuse With nearly 20 percent of seniors over 65 facing substance abuse problems, it is no wonder that substance abuse in the elderly has been called "One of the fastest growing health problems in this country." According to the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence, over ten percent of hospital admission for seniors are related to drug or alcohol problems. These numbers rise to "14 percent of elderly emergency room admissions, and 20 percent of elderly psychiatric hospital admissions. " The group with the highest rate of alcoholism in America is not teens or any ethnic group, it is widowers over the age of 75. Several factors contribute to the prevalence and rise of elderly substance abuse.…
A study done by the Food and Drug Administration say that the most common medication error was related to…
As our world ages more problems arise. Whether it is political issues, economic issues, or even crime, it affects all age groups. Most of the issues occurring today are associated with the younger generations. However, there are issues that are being overlooked in the elderly population. Substance abuse in the elderly is one of the fastest growing issues in the United States.…
The likelihood that the elderly patient has a family member come by often and is aware of their medications is very high. With that, the family members now have access to a dangerous drug, and they have no way of being monitored by medical professionals when and if they consume the medication, putting themselves in a highly dangerous…
This service can only be performed after the completion of medication therapy review, a process of obtaining all patient-specific information to identify possible medication-related problems in order to develop a plan for resolution. Research shows that the most common drug-related problem that elderly patients are experiencing is inappropriate drug selection by the physician (3). With MTM, pharmacists are able to educate and to make adjustments to their medications by collaborating with the physician, yielding a more accurate medication delivery. Unlike comprehensive medication review, this review is more tailored to the patient’s needs and setting goals of therapy to the patient’s preference and value.…