Critique Paper: Improving Patient Safety

Improved Essays
Research Critique Paper: Improving Patient Safety
In this research article, regarding interruptions contributing to medication administration errors, the title was appropriate for the content the author discussed. The article described ways the nurse can decrease distractions and interruptions during medication administration, a high risk activity, which is a patient safety concern. This study is very important to the practice of nursing because patient safety is a top priority when giving medications. Many medications can harm a patient so it is important for the nurse to take their time giving them. The purpose of this research article is to limit the interruptions during medication administration and improving patient safety. In the article they used evidence based strategies to decrease the interruptions made during medication administration. The research article does state a specific aim they are trying to accomplish in reducing errors. Common causes of distractions include, patient load, phone calls, and verbal face to face interruptions (Flynn 2016 page 81). The article uses a variety of resources in the research that are related to the medication
…show more content…
Distractions clearly impede medication administration and this is clearly identified in the article. The sampling of the article took place in a progressive cardiac care setting, during randomly picked peak medication administration times. The pilot study on this unit was conducted over an 18-month period (Flynn 2016 page 27). Nurses on the unit were aware that they were observed during data collection. Mean patient census was between 34-39 patients on the unit. The article clearly described the situation at hand and illustrated ways to improve upon patient safety. The tables in the article made references to the study and elaborated upon how to reduce the interruptions that cause distractions when medication is

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    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.…

    • 1070 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Premise: The Nursing Action-plan on the use and sustainability of Barcode Medication Administration Problem Statement According to Aiken et al. (2012), the concern regarding patients’ safety is a global issue and not concentrated to particular hospitals. The study by Van Den Bos et al. (2011) describes some of the means through which patients could be injured such as ineffectual sharing of information among clinicians, delayed treatment, and sometimes misapplication of health technology just to mention a few.…

    • 358 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Electronic Medication Administration Record and Patient Safety One of the reason medication related deaths occur are due to medication errors (Karen, 2011, p. 1). In fact, within the United States, approximately 7,000 people die each year due to medication errors (Karen, 2011, p. 1). According to Karen (2011) 1.3 million medication errors occur yearly, which relates to several injuries and approximately one death a day related to medication errors in the Unites States (Karen, 2011, p. 1). One major cause of medication errors can be explained using the medication administration process (Mccomas, 2014, p.590). When a health care provider is responsible to administer a medication, there are approximately 50 to 100 steps involved in this process…

    • 962 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    1705). A computerized system has its pros and cons, for example one con of a computerized system is bypassing the system and disregarding certain alerts (Karen, 2011, p. 4). Nurses may want to override the system in order to get the task completed faster, although they are accountable medication administration rights, any alerts that may be assumed to be repetitive may be disregarded. This disregards of alerts or bypassing the system can result in medication errors and decrease patient’s…

    • 1089 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Prescribing Error

    • 562 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The study that is summarized aimed to further delve into the current roles of hospitalization in prescribing error hazards and medication-related communication as patients are taken back and forth to ambulatory care. Many hazards come about in a hospital setting but a prescribing error is caused by the individual working for the health-care institution. The change-over between diverse levels of health-care, like hospital admission and discharge, display a large threat to the quality and continuance of drug therapy and that is what we will be discussing. The writing that is being summarized displays a clear understanding on how someone can analyze and decipher a given set of data using inferential statistics.…

    • 562 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Nurses have a responsibility to understand all aspects of medication administration and safety. Cohen (2016) describes three cases where medication errors occurred due to misinterpretation of labeling and inadequate patient education. These three cases are only a small representation of the concerns regarding nurses and medication errors. It is estimated that 1.5 million patients are harmed by medication errors yearly. Since nurses administer the majority of patient medications, the nurse’s workflow is the most observed to improve medication safety.…

    • 235 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    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.…

    • 1335 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Cross-Sectional Study

    • 229 Words
    • 1 Pages

    Donaldson, Aydin, Friedman, & Foley (2014) collected data from 333 observational studies in 43 different hospitals while observing medication administration. The aims of the cross-sectional study were to define what constitutes as a medication administration (MA) error, examine nurses adherence to six fundamental safe practices during MA, examine the prevalence of MA errors in adult acute care, and to explore the association between nurses deviation from MA safety techniques and MA error. For every observation setting there was a minimum of 100 observed doses per patient care unit and those performing the observations were trained in using the collaborative alliance for nursing outcomes (CALNOC) MA accuracy assessment method. From the observations…

    • 229 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Rational for Reducing Medication Errors Medication errors are the most common cause of accidental harm to individuals. These errors contribute to side effects that compromise a patient’s safety and are a large financial problem to a facility. Preventing medication errors, which happen at every level of the medication administration process, is the primary concern for maintaining a safe and effective hospital. One third of all errors harming patients occur during medication administration and is determined a high-risk activity performed by the nurse (Cloete, 2014). Safe and effective medication administration is key to quality patient care and facility operations.…

    • 766 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    When this is done incorrectly, it results in it being the most common reason for a competence notification to the Nursing Council (Cook, 2014). Some factors that can lead to administering of medication errors are loss of concentration, interruptions, not following the proper procedure, stress in the workplace, being understaffed and the nurses health status (Cook, 2014). It is why critical thinking is needed to avoid these errors in medication, but also in patient care. Her understanding of nursing practices allowed her to question the soundness of the care plan change, and realize that it made no sense in the circumstances. Having observant nurses, that take care to understand their patients care plans and treatments, protects the patients from mistakes that can occur in such a large organization.…

    • 764 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Diversion In Healthcare

    • 1672 Words
    • 7 Pages

    However, the risks associated with the diversion of intravenous drugs places patients at even greater risk due to the possibility of encountering infectious agents that transfer when nurses divert drugs intended for them. In addition, patients receive less quality during their interactions with such health institutions, which reduces the latter’s ability to meet their mandate in providing quality and safe healthcare to the public. Large hospitals face greater problems compared to their smaller counterparts when tackling this issue due to their high numbers of employees as well as the vast drug resources that they maintain in order to provide a broad range of health solutions. In fact, even institutions with well-established and long-serving anti-diversion measures still record instances of nurses seeking to divert medications. In some cases, hospitals have found that electronic systems play a critical role in reducing the prevalence of drug diversion in their institutions.…

    • 1672 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Interruption In Nursing

    • 477 Words
    • 2 Pages

    According to Hall, Ferguson-Pare, Pehter, White, Besner, Chisholm, Ferris, Fryers, Macleod, Mildon, Pedersen, and Hemingway (2012), 13,025 interruptions were observed in the presented study. 6,519 were on a medical unit and 6,506 were on a surgical units. The study found that the primary source of interruption came from other health care providers. Interruptions from nursing coworkers, the individual nurse, and physicians also occurred. Patients and their family members were found to cause the least interruptions.…

    • 477 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Abstract Patient safety is the absence of preventable harm to a patient during the process of health care and considered the cornerstone of high-quality health care. Nurses play an important role in that vital care. Nurses need to know what proven techniques and interventions they can use to enhance patient outcomes.…

    • 1151 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Medication errors are believed to be the fifth leading cause of death in the United States. These deaths can be prevented by the reduction of medication administration errors (MAEs) in the healthcare environment. Dr. Jean Watson implemented several simple caring practices at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Atlanta, Ga in 2009. The intention of these practices was to implement small changes on the nursing floor during the times of medication administration in an effort to eliminate distractions and interruptions of the nurse. Some of the changes included having the nurse wear a bright colored sash to alert others that he or she was administering medications as well as the nurse to taking a moment before administering the meds to review the seven…

    • 709 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Second, increased workload and low nurse to patient ratio is the causes of medication errors. Nurses are accountable for fulfilling of many responsibilities and duties during their working shifts which make them to increase the occurrence of medication errors especially with the shortage of nursing staff. In Canadian hospitals, many medication errors occur due to working overtime, staff workload, inadequately trained staff and resources, poor relation with physicians, unsupportive co-workers, and low job security. (Lilley, Harrington & Snyder, 2011, p. 78).…

    • 1084 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays