Class 3 Redo Assessment 1
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NURS__Assessment1-Class3.docxRunning head: 1
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Capella University
October, 2020
Enhancing Quality and Safety
The Processes of quality improvement are often initiated to improve outcomes, especially in healthcare. Therefore, after initiating a quality improvement process, there should be evaluated over time to assess its suitability. The evaluation process can be through the following: For quality improvement processes (QIP) to work out effectively, there is a need for full integration into a healthcare system together with all its procedures (Adane et al., 2019).
Companies use Root Cause Analysis (RCA) to establish the instances, whereby it draws divergent opinions that result in poorer integration. Therefore, integration levels can be a good judge of an RCA approach (Charles et al., 2016). One of the ways this could be useful is in analyzing medical errors. Addressing medication errors requires a continuous improvement process. This is to ensure the provision of quality patient care in medical and surgical practice. It will define measures that intervene for planned success in patient safety and the success of the RCA.
Potential Evidence-based and Best-practice Solutions for Solving Medication Administration Errors
Medication administration errors are a threat to the safety of patients, and they are costly as well. Nurses have to interpose any medication errors to enhance the safety of patients before the medications reach the patient. They can do this by sticking to the six medication administration rights and reporting any medication errors they encounter. Besides, they must find the best solutions to prevent them (Latimer et al., 2017). The most important thing when deciding on the solutions is that they must be adequate, simple, and economical. The six medication rights that nurses must adhere to are “the right patient, the right drug, at the right time, the right route, right dose, and right documentation.”
A clinical decision support system is another evidence-based practice that has been used to reduce medication administration errors. It helps in alerting and aiding prescriber decisions regarding therapeutic management, frequency, dose, length of medication therapy, side effects, and allergies, laboratory test values, and drug and food interaction. Using modified medication and prescription charts also help reduce medication administration errors. These charts have a drug name, form, dose, strength, route, refill, frequency, amount, indications, and other directions on drug administration. Incorporating automated drug dispensing machines, using barcoding, and using robots can also reduce the common dispensation errors. Medication administration errors can be prevented by utilizing “smart devices” when performing an intravenous administration.
Medication Administration Errors in Healthcare Setting
The primary cause of preventable patient harm and death within the healthcare setting across the globe is unsafe medication habits. The most significant percentage of which arises during the administration of medication (Wondmieneh et al., 2020). Medication administration errors such as prescription errors, exclusion, incorrect time, unlawful drug administration, incorrect dose, incorrect dose prescription, incorrect dose preparation, and administrations errors are the most common kinds of medical errors presenting risky effects for patients, health institutions, and health professionals.
Nurses devote up to forty percent of their time administering medications to patients since it is their responsibility. They symbolize the final safety assessment in the string of proceedings in the process of drug administration and are the final safety measure of patient health (Hammoudi et al., 2018). Medication errors can arise at any of the medication use phases, i.e., at some stage in prescribing, transcription, dispensation, and administration. However, most medication errors most commonly happen during the phase of administration.
These errors usually occur due to factors such as insufficient nurse education regarding the safety and quality of patients care, inadequacy in staffing, indecipherable provider handwriting, issues with drug labelling, faulty dispensing systems, staff fatigue, and extreme workload (Hammoudi et al., 2018). Besides, issues such as drugs with similar names or same packaging, drugs not regularly prescribed, frequently used drugs to which many patients are allergic. Besides, medications, which need testing to guarantee the maintenance of suitable therapeutic levels, continuously challenge nurses to make sure that the patients get the correct medication at the correct time. Medications that look the same or have names that sound the same can cause medication errors and misreading the names of medications, which look the same, is a frequent mistake nurses face when caring for their patients.
The Role of Nurses and other Stakeholders in addressing the Issue of Medication Administration Errors
Nurses play a huge role in enhancing quality care in hospitals. They engage directly with patients across all units. They play an important role in critical care. Most of the time, they require nurses and specialized personnel to help the recovery in the ICU before they are transferred to the common wards. Measures have to be developed to ensure that their safety is heightened in addressing medical errors (Scott & Henneman, 2017). Most of the surgical units' patients require special attention, which the nurses are mandated to oversee. It lies up to them to liaise with other health professionals in ensuring that patients recover and leave the hospital. This does, however, put them at risk. They often carry the liability of medical error. This does also put them at pressure since they are often overworked affecting their emotional and physical strength (Dall' Ora et al., 2016).
Health care facilities continue to ensure that nurses are trained in how best to handle patient safety. The nursing profession has clear guidelines for patient's safety. A case of negligence on their part could result in the suspension of their licenses or even revocation of their practicing license (Hammoudi et al., 2018). As a result, they have to continue training their nurses on how best to improve their skills for patient safety. With medical errors being a common issue in the healthcare setting, nurses have to be trained on their contribution towards reduced medical errors.
Hospitals have to ensure that they schedule their shifts accordingly to prevent them from work overload. In order to meet their role in patient safety, nurses have to coordinate their roles with those of the clinicians, supervisors, and ancillary staff. Their coordinated efforts help facilitate improvement measures towards reduced medical errors. They also need to coordinate their roles to reduce workload and improve communication to reduce interruptions that lead to human error. Through interdisciplinary actions, they carry out Root cause analysis and facilitate corrective action to meet patient safety needs.
As mentioned earlier, nurses play a vital role in ensuring patient safety by reducing medication administration errors. Other stakeholders such as the pharmacists, physicians, the patient, the government, legislative bodies, researchers, and accrediting agencies also have a significant role to play in reducing medication administration errors. Nurses use their knowledge top to deliver nursing care that is important to patient safety and wellbeing. The government and legislative agencies establish practice rules, acts, and regulations regarding medication administration. Patients should mention their allergies, physicians should write legible prescriptions, and accrediting agencies should only accredit healthcare facilities based on their merits (Garfield et al., 2016).
Conclusion
Quality improvement tools are vital to healthcare organizations. They, however, need constant evaluations to assess their effectiveness. Through a focused audit, developmental, and multiple case studies, there can be an evaluation of the QIP. Also, through assessment of integration levels, data, and evidence-based assessment, evaluation can be achieved. Medical errors need joint collaboration between the hospitals and their health professionals to ensure patient safety is enhanced. This will help hospitals cut down on the cases reported as a result of medical errors in the surgical and transplant department and across all units. Patient safety and quality of care are essential when administering medications. It is, therefore, important for all the stakeholders to prevent any medication errors that might harm the patient or cause death.
References
Adane, K., Gizachew, M., & Kendie, S. (2019). The role of medical data in efficient patient care delivery: A review. Risk Management and Healthcare Policy, 12, 67-73. doi:10.2147/rmhp.s179259
Berlin, L. (2017). Medical errors, malpractice, and defensive medicine: An ill-fated triad. Diagnosis, 4(3), 133-139. doi:10.1515/dx-2017-0007
Charles, R., Hood, B., Derosier, J. M., Gosbee, J. W., Li, Y., Caird, M. S., . . . Hake, M. E. (2016). How to perform a root cause analysis for workup and future prevention of medical errors: A review. Patient Safety in Surgery, 10(1), 20-20. doi:10.1186/s13037-016-0107-8
Dall'Ora, C., Griffiths, P., & Ball, J. (2016). Twelve-hour shifts: Burnout or job satisfaction? Nursing Times (1987), 112(12-13), 22-23.
Garfield, S., Jheeta, S., Husson, F., Lloyd, J., Taylor, A., Boucher, C., . . . Franklin, B. D. (2016). The role of hospital inpatients in supporting medication safety: A qualitative study. PloS One, 11(4), e0153721-e0153721. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0153721
Hammoudi, B. M., Ismaile, S., & Abu Yahya, O. (2018). Factors associated with medication administration errors and why nurses fail to report them. Scandinavian journal of caring sciences, 32(3), 1038-1046.
Latimer, S., Hewitt, J., Stanbrough, R., & McAndrew, R. (2017). Reducing medication errors: Teaching strategies that increase nursing students' awareness of medication errors and their prevention. Nurse Education Today, 52, 7-9. doi:10.1016/j.nedt.2017.02.004
Scott, S. S., & Henneman, E. (2017). Underreporting of medical errors. Medsurg Nursing, 26(3), 211.
Wondmieneh, A., Alemu, W., Tadele, N., & Demis, A. (2020). Medication administration errors and contributing factors among nurses: A cross sectional study in tertiary hospitals, addis ababa, ethiopia. BMC Nursing, 19(1), 4-4. doi:10.1186/s12912-020-0397-0
