Medication Errors In Nursing

Nurses devote a considerable amount of their time administering medications. Nurses administer medications to multiple patients throughout the day. In a fast-paced environment, medication administration is a high-risk assignment. There are so many different ways a medication error can occur. When a medication error happens, it can lead to very serious and costly consequences for the patient and the hospital (Chu, 2016). These medication errors are 100% preventable. One of the best ways for a new nurse to prevent medication errors is to state their rights of medication. Often the nurses, who don’t follow their rights of medication, will result in a medication error (Chu, 2016). Before a nurse can enter the healthcare atmosphere to provide patient care, the nurse must show competency in his or her ability to perform …show more content…
By stating the six rights at the Pyxis and in the patient’s room, it can significantly help reduce the incidence of medication errors in the hospital setting. This is the goal of the six rights of medication, to reduce the risk of errors in administration (Ferguson, Delaney, & Harvey, 2014). In a recent study, student nurses were observed in the clinical setting to determine if they stated the rights of administration. Evidence shows that in 43% of the observations observed, the student nurse failed to complete the rights of administration (Young, Cochran, Mei, Adkins-Bley, Ciarkowski, & Wagner, 2015). By not stating the rights of medication, it deviates from protocols that are intended to provide safety for the patient during administration (Blignaut, Coetzee, Klopper, & Eliis, 2017). Stating the 6 rights of medication needs to be improved if nurses want to prevent medication errors and allow for safe medication administration. Another journal states the importance of knowing the reasoning behind the six rights of medication. Knowing the six rights of medication is not enough to prevent medication errors. The nurse must know how to obtain the