Reflection On Medication Management

Superior Essays
At the beginning of my nursing career most of the medical terms I’ve come to use and understand I had while little knowledge about. Some of these terms I picked up in practical experience and other I learnt in lectures. One of these terms has come to be very important in my nursing career and that is medication management. At first my understanding of this concept was very limited and I didn’t understand many of the different factors that all came together to make up the whole. Over my studies this understanding has evolved and become a core part of my nursing practice. Looking back at my experiences I reveal strategies that I used to further this understanding in way that continue to assist me in furthering that development throughout the …show more content…
I have tried a variety of different strategies and during that time and have increased my skills by leaps and bounds. During my practice I have been wary of medication errors after close calls and have taken extra time and effort to continually expand and consolidate the information that I have gained about medication management. Reflection is often brought on by a close call or a specific incident (Duke & Forbes, 2012). A lot of my reflection from this topic is based on a close call and it has been a constant reminder and reinforcer of all the information I have gathered. As a Student I employed many different ways of learning about the medication management procedures of my placements. This involved me gain the required knowledge of the proper procedures and medications required to perform in line with the national standards. One of the ways I accomplished this task was, at the beginning of the placement, ask the preceptor for a list of commonly used medication and then use the medication charts to create a list of any unfamiliar medications so that I could research and be able to provide the necessary information. Along with going of the medication management procedures I was able to gain the necessary skills and confidence to boost my competence in this …show more content…
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. Administering the medication requires an in depth knowledge about the medications as it can be required that I need to educate the patient on how to take the medications at home and how that will affect them.

Related Documents

  • Superior Essays

    Medication errors compromise patient safety. Factors that relate specifically to nursing medication errors include acuity of patients and workload of nurses, distractions, and interruptions that can occur during medication administration. Medication errors underlying causes are inadequate staffing, time restraints, unit atmosphere, and exhaustion. Administering medications is one of numerous responsibilities of a registered nurse and is regularly fraught with disruptions. It was reported that every medication pass was disturbed because of other staff members, absent medications, and further patient care requirements.…

    • 1386 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior 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

    Case Study 1 – Medication errors and strategies for prevention 1A) Factors that can contribute to medication errors may include lack of knowledge, non-adherence or neglect of proper medication protocol and human error due to tiredness and fatigue. According to recent research, inadequate knowledge in pharmacology such as administration routes and dosage calculations was one of the most important reasons for the occurrence of medication errors (Shahrokhi, Ebrahimpour & Ghodousi, 2013). A strategy for preventing this occurrence would be to implement periodic education programs for nurses, enabling nurses to consolidate and further expand and improve their knowledge of both the current and continuous new supply of drugs. In an attempt to prevent medication errors due to the factor of human error, the improvement of proper managerial and organisational preparations such as the moderation of work hours and appropriately adjusting the nurse to patient ratio are some strategies to be considered. This may ultimately reduce the factor of tiredness due to excessive overtime work, limiting the space for human and medication errors.…

    • 1024 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The wording of the questions was appropriately worded in a way that patients would comprehend the questions. I thought that use of examples would have been useful to better provide constructive understanding of patient responsibilities. Medication errors interests me since this has been an occurring problem since the start of healthcare. This problem affects me as a future nurse, and it provides insight that patients can hold responsibility in this issue as well. The information provided was useful for both the patient and the caregiver.…

    • 838 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Reflective Summary

    • 116 Words
    • 1 Pages

    The purpose of this body of work was to address medication errors and safe medication administration practices in relation to practicing nurses and nursing students via several different approaches. These different approaches will be presented as three separate papers but interrelated themes. The specific purpose for each paper and the corresponding research questions were addressed individually in each chapter. The approach used in the first paper was a systematic literature search of medication administration errors and the pediatric population; five themes emerged including the incidence rate of medication administration errors, specific medications involved in medication administration errors and classification of the errors, why medication…

    • 116 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Medication being administered in a hospital setting is one of the most critical skills that a nurse must master. Many deaths and poor outcomes happen each year in hospitals due to incorrect medication administration. It is of utmost importance for the nurse to be skilled and proficient in this area for the importance of patient care. In the study about the administration of psychiatric medications the article states there are 7000 deaths per year due to incorrect administration of medications. The setting in the study was in a hospital that had around 900 psychiatric inpatients.…

    • 467 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved 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
  • Superior Essays

    As medication administration is probably the highest risk task a nurse can perform, many policies and guidelines have been devised to help prevent medication errors occurring. Most nurses will be familiar with the five rights of medication administration: the right patient, drug, dose, route and time (Elliott & Liu, 2010). There have been studies conducted to make recommendations for policies would allow for safe medication administration. According to Choo, for a nurse to verify the five rights, legible prescriptions, a conductive environment without unnecessary disruptions and adequate staffing patterns must be present (Choo et al., 2010).…

    • 1862 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In part one of this assignment we took a closer look at medical errors, including why errors occur, and what is considered to be a medical error. Given that medical errors are now one of the top three leading causes of death in the United States, it is time to work on addressing this problem (Daniel, 2016). Nursing theory provides the “basis of understanding the reality of nursing; it enables the nurse to understand why an event happens” (McEwen & Wills, 2014, p. 413). In this paper we are going to describe how the nursing intellectual capital theory can be applied to medical errors and help to prevent them from occurring in the future; even with the demand to lower health care costs. We will be also taking a closer look at the origin of theory,…

    • 911 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Medication Therapy Management (MTM) is a service that pharmacists provide to improve treatment outcomes for individual patients by optimizing the safe effective use of medications. The services that MTM provide incorporates the following: medication therapy review (MTR), personal medication record (PMR), medication-related action plan (MAP), intervention, documentation, and follow-up (4). These services are provided to Medicare patients at no cost and pharmacists who provided these services can be reimbursed by Medicare Part D. With the availability of these salutary services, the patients, typically the geriatrics, who cope with poly-pharmacy, high-risk medications, and transition of care are highly encouraged to utilize these services. According…

    • 800 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The NMC (2015) sets standards of education, training and conduct that health care professionals need to deliver a high quality of care consistently though-out their careers. This is important when it comes to all aspects of fundamental care including the administration of medicines. Medication checks are extremely important in preventing prescription errors and consequent risk to patients (Fitzgerald, 2009). Medication errors are becoming increasingly prevalent following a patients discharge from the hospital. Barnett, et al.…

    • 709 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    According to Tabloski (2014), it is very important for nurses to obtain accurate medication list upon admission to the hospital or long-term facility. Having the pharmacist reviewing the medication list may be beneficial to avoid medication error. Educating our patients on when to take their medication and why are they taking it may prevent medication error. In conclusion, since the main priority for nurses is to keep our patients safe, our job is to educate our patients, whether that is on medication use, preventing falls, skin care, or proper nutrition, we play a big role when it comes to our patients’ safety.…

    • 793 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Also discussed will be ways to aid in preventing medication errors by students and other clinical staff. Discussion Medication errors can happen for many different reasons, most of which are avoidable. These errors can be the result of the direct care staff, such as the nurse, administering a medication to the incorrect patient or, giving an incorrect dose. The nursing staff alone…

    • 1068 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    This team approach encourages nurses to collaborate with other staff on the unit about safe medication administration. This unit also has a very proactive and involved clinical nurse educator. We see this as a big strength because a positive attitude about guideline implementation can reflect the attitude of the staff on the…

    • 1087 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Caregivers should teach patients the name of each medication they are taking. Teach them also what the medications are for and how it should be taken. Nurses should not be interrupted during medication pass. Nurse should only pass meds to one patient at a time. Medications should be packaged in clearly labeled packages.…

    • 410 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays