Paper writing

INTERVENTION TO HELP IN THE REDUCTION OF MEDICATION ERRORS 6

Intervention to Help in the Reduction of Medication Errors

Name

Institutional Affiliation

Date

What is the effectiveness of the barcode medication administration system on the safety of the patient in the reduction of medication errors for nurses taking care of patients in the healthcare setting as compared to none?

Problem

Nurses are playing an important role in the protection against the mistakes that occurs during the administration of the medication since they are directly involved in the dispensing and preparation of the medications. The medication is a task that is natural in the scope of practice for the nurses and this places them at a greater risk of experiencing an error. Even though the harm that is imposed on the client is of greater concern to the patients, healthcare professionals, and the hospitals; the harm that is experienced by the nurses is frequently overlooked. Several approaches have been provided to help in the prevention of medication administration errors. The implementation of these strategies is considered to be the major priority of most healthcare facilities. There is an increased incidence of medication administration errors due to wrong-timing and schedule. These factors are being ignored by the organizations and nurses thus increasing the medication administration errors (Baraki, et al., 2018).

Significance of the problem in terms of the outcomes or statistics

This problem is important since it helps in revealing the existence of the gap to help in the reduction in medication administration errors. Little attention is given to the strategies that are helpful in the prevention of medication administration errors. Knowing the type of medication is important in the assessment of the features of the errors, the health strategies to be adopted, and the policies that are focused on the medications that are considered to be at higher risk. The problem of medication administration errors is helping in revealing some of the preventable death cases or morbidity cases that are reported in hospitals. The problem helps in designing effective prevention strategies to be adopted in preventing medication administration errors. The effective implementation of the adopted strategies is helping in the overall reduction in medication administration errors (Baraki, et al., 2018).

The PICOT Question

What is the effect of the barcode medication administration system on the reported incidence of the medication administration errors amongst patients in onco-hematology day healthcare facilities during their stay in the hospital as compared to none?

Purpose of the paper

There is an increase in the reported cases of medication administration errors in onco-hematology day healthcare facilities. Some of these errors can be prevented through effective strategies such as the barcode medication administration system. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to describe the barcode medication administration system as an effective strategy towards the prevention of medication administration errors for the patients within the onco-hematology day healthcare facilities.

Level of evidence

The selected article with primary data is by Marcias et al. (2018) on the impact of the barcode medication administration system on the safety of the patient. The study is in level IV i.e. the information presented is based on the evidence collected for a well-designed case-control that is based on the pre-post i.e. prospective trial using a baseline measure, intervention, and the post-test through the use of the single group of study participants. The study is based on the use of pre and post-intervention between groups. The intervention group used are the clients diagnosed with the solid tumors and they were compared to the patients with hematologic cancer that were used as the control group before and after the introduction of the barcode medication administration system, error incidence, and followed by the severe evaluation of the severity as well as the determination of the length of the stay for the treatment (Marcias et al., 2018).

The type of question asked

The research question linked to this article is on the effects of adopting the barcode medication administration system on the safety of the patients in the onco-hematology day healthcare facilities and determining the features of the medication errors in the organization.

The best evidence to answer question

The barcode medication administration is helping in preventing the errors during the administration of medication since it enables nurses to help in the rectification of the five rights of the medication administration i.e. patient, medicine, time, the route, and the dosage. The barcode medication administration system is considering wrong-time errors and schedule. The barcode medication system is helping the nurses in timing while administering medication. The barcode is focused on the method of drug administration. It helps nurses in assessing the information and communication technology to help in the improvement of the safety of the patients. This system is helping in the reduction of the potential and the actual severity of medication errors. It also helps in the reduction of the in the process of ordering the drug administration, pharmacy department medication transcription, dose omissions, and the errors in the dosages.

Search Strategy

The key terms that guided this research are medication administration errors, outpatient care, medication errors, barcode medication administration system. These key terms are important since they guide in understanding or discussing the role played by the barcode medication administration system as an intervention in the reduction of medication errors especially for the patient in the onco-hematological day healthcare facilities (Bifftu et al., 2016).

The Database used

The database that was used to guide in getting key information related to this problem is the NCBI, the Google Scholar, the Chamberlain, the Journal of the oncology nursing forum, and the Sciencedirect.

Refinement decision made

The article by Marcias et al (2018) is the most important article tool of reference since it proposed an important strategy that can be applied by the nurses in the improvement of patient safety. The issue of medication errors is becoming a major concern and it is important to ensure that there is the adoption of the effective strategies within the healthcare to help in the reduction of such errors. This article is proposing the barcode medication administration system as an appropriate strategy in the reduction of medication administration errors. The system is focused on the schedule and the route of the administration (Marcias et al., 2018).

The identification of the most relevant article

One of the considerations in the selection of the article is about the qualification of the authors in the area of the study i.e. healthcare sector. The authors of this article are professionals with the Ph.D. as well as the managing directors. Another consideration is on the journal of publication used by the authors i.e. the oncology of nursing forum. The journal is valid since the authors aimed at studying the effects of the barcode medication administration on the reported cases of the medication administration errors amongst patients in the onco-hematology day healthcare facilities. The selection of the article is also based on the number of study participants employed by the author i.e. 715 patients who were treated in the onco-hematology day units (Marcias et al., 2018).

References

Baraki, Z., Abay, M., Tsegay, L., Gerensea, H., Kebede, A., & Teklay, H. (2018). Medication administration error and contributing factors among pediatric inpatient in public hospitals of Tigray, northern Ethiopia. BMC Pediatr, 18, 321. Bifftu, B. B., Dachew, B. A., Tiruneh, B. T., & Beshah, D. T. (2016). Medication administration error reporting and associated factors among nurses working at the University of Gondar referral hospital, Northwest Ethiopia, 2015. BMC Nurs., 15(1), 43. Marcias, M., Bernabeu-Andreu, F., Arribas, I., Navarro, F., & Baldominos, G. (2018). Impact of a Barcode Medication Administration System on Patient Safety. Oncology Nursing Forum, 45(1), E1-E13.