The Importance Of Medication Errors In Nursing Care

Enhancing knowledge of adverse drug events is becoming increasingly significant due the economic and medical repercussions. All medication has the tendency of causing detrimental effects when it is not properly given. Accurate and safety measures must be implemented when prescribing, dispensing, and administration of medications. The initial step to high patient safety improvement and elevating quality care should be to create awareness of the problem and educating nursing staffs on good medication practices. This is achieved by providing adequate training that focuses on medication error reduction strategies, and importance of effective communication among staff when delivering care to patient ( ). Harris, (2014) researched on the use of online training module on strategies to reduce medication errors. Her findings reinforced the approach …show more content…
This intervention is a process of creating a complete and accurate list of medication patient is taking prior to providing medical care to the patients, which include medication name, dosage, route, and frequency (Midlov, et al., 2012). Three steps are involved in the medication reconciliation process; validation of the patient medication history, clarify if medication is suitable for the patient, and resolution of any inconsistencies. Creating correct patient medication list is useful because it can be used anywhere in the health care system (Whittich, Burkle, & Lanier, 2014). Midlov, et al. (2012) reported on the use of medication reconciliation intervention when patient is discharge from hospital to the community as another way of improving quality and reducing medication errors. They suggested that pharmacist should be employed during this process because pharmacists are the most appropriate professional to construct accurate medication list (Midlov, et al.,