Medication administration errors are some of the most frequent types of errors that occur in the health care field ("Why Neither the “Five Rights” Nor Bar Code Medication Administration Alone Will Prevent Medication Errors," n.d). To prevent such errors there has been designed an approach to create a safer practice by following the "five right" rule that verifies the right patient, right medication, right time, right dose, and the right route. Nevertheless the lethal errors still occur on the daily basis. One of the reasons for the failure in this practice is that the administration lacks to consider that the medication administration is a multidisciplinary approach that involves the surrounding environment, like inadequate staffing, lack of
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There has been a study conducted to evaluate the medication errors before the launch of the BCMA and after (Helmons, Wargel, & Daniels, 2010). The research took place in the large California teaching hospital in their two medical- surgical units and two intensive care units (ICU). The research discovered that implementation of BCMA improved the patient identification of the medical, surgical units and improved charting and labeling of mixed intravenous medications in ICUs(Helmons et al., 2010). Despite the slow adaptation of BCMA use in the United States, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) has provided the funding to eleven different organizations in multiple health care settings to explore its effects and outcomes on patient safety and its cost ("Bar-coded Medication Administration," …show more content…
Nurses are well-known for their resilience and ability to critically think to overcome barriers and efficiently deliver care to their patients. Sometimes such choices include bypassing the use of the BCMA. The nurse manager can look at this problem by using the well-known problem-solving model which includes: assessment, diagnosis, plan, implementation, and evaluation (Marquis & Huston, 2015). The nurse manager has to first assess the situation on the floor and find out what is the reasoning behind bypassing the use of BCMA by the nursing staff. A good manager has to realize that nurse cannot be held totally accountable for the failure of not using the system consistently. They can only be accountable for following the processes that have been designed by their health care organization ("Why Neither the “Five Rights” Nor Bar Code Medication Administration Alone Will Prevent Medication Errors," n.d). In other words, we have to closely assess the situation on the floor, and decide whether the issue is affected by environmental causes, like constant understaffing, over burn, inappropriate floating of nurses from other departments, technology malfunctioning and frequent system down times, or personal choices, like unsafe patient care and failure to adhere to the organizational core values and practices. According to the 2010
There has been a study conducted to evaluate the medication errors before the launch of the BCMA and after (Helmons, Wargel, & Daniels, 2010). The research took place in the large California teaching hospital in their two medical- surgical units and two intensive care units (ICU). The research discovered that implementation of BCMA improved the patient identification of the medical, surgical units and improved charting and labeling of mixed intravenous medications in ICUs(Helmons et al., 2010). Despite the slow adaptation of BCMA use in the United States, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) has provided the funding to eleven different organizations in multiple health care settings to explore its effects and outcomes on patient safety and its cost ("Bar-coded Medication Administration," …show more content…
Nurses are well-known for their resilience and ability to critically think to overcome barriers and efficiently deliver care to their patients. Sometimes such choices include bypassing the use of the BCMA. The nurse manager can look at this problem by using the well-known problem-solving model which includes: assessment, diagnosis, plan, implementation, and evaluation (Marquis & Huston, 2015). The nurse manager has to first assess the situation on the floor and find out what is the reasoning behind bypassing the use of BCMA by the nursing staff. A good manager has to realize that nurse cannot be held totally accountable for the failure of not using the system consistently. They can only be accountable for following the processes that have been designed by their health care organization ("Why Neither the “Five Rights” Nor Bar Code Medication Administration Alone Will Prevent Medication Errors," n.d). In other words, we have to closely assess the situation on the floor, and decide whether the issue is affected by environmental causes, like constant understaffing, over burn, inappropriate floating of nurses from other departments, technology malfunctioning and frequent system down times, or personal choices, like unsafe patient care and failure to adhere to the organizational core values and practices. According to the 2010