Paper writing

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Interventions to Reduce Medication Errors among Nurses in a Healthcare Setting

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Interventions to Reduce Medication Errors among Nurses in a Healthcare Setting

Introduction

Based on the National Coordinating Council for Medication Error Reporting and Prevention information, medication errors refer to any unnecessary action that is likely to lead to or cause inappropriate use of medication or adverse effects to the patient. At the same time, medicine is controlled by the patient or the nurse. All medical errors are involved during hospitalization, including after discharge and before admission. They can lead to fatal results like congenital disabilities, disability, severe side effects, life-threatening conditions, or death. Furthermore, medical errors could occur because of inadequate professional expertise and training, low monitoring of healthcare products, negligence in medical procedures, and inefficient prescription systems (Vaidotas et al., 2019).

Overview of the Problem

According to Vaidotas et al. (2019), in 2012, the United States Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) disclosed information about issues related to medical errors. They indicated that the errors were accountable for an excess of seven hundred thousand emergency cases. Besides, there were 120 thousand hospitalizations, with projected expenses of above 40 percent, approximately US$ 3.5 billion. These hospital admissions were avoidable events (Vaidotas et al., 2019). These numbers may grow even more due to the advancement of new treatments and the elderly population.

Significance of the Problem

The study results will redound to the benefit of patients considering that medication errors affect their lives. The greater demand for quality healthcare justifies the need for treatments free from medication errors. Therefore, nurses should apply appropriate approaches derived from this research's outcomes, which will eliminate medication errors (Khalil et al., 2017). Their administrators will guide healthcare workers about what they should implement to improve the reduction of medication errors. Besides, the study will reveal essential measures in healthcare that various researchers did not explore (Choi & Kim, 2019). Thus, other methods of preventing medication errors will be considered.

Individual Topic Search Strategy

Clinical question

Research Question

“What are the interventions nurses should consider to minimize medication errors in healthcare settings?”

Purpose of the Paper

The study's objective is to determine the interventions nurses should consider to reduce medication errors in healthcare settings. As a group, we are jointly collecting data regarding what medical procedures or methods lead to medication errors in hospitalized patients. After the assessment of the general situation, the study identified the need to address these issues. The survey by Vaidotas et al. (2019) demonstrated that the prevention of medication errors depends on procedures used in the professional culture, including how they evaluated to control the errors. Electronic Medical Records is a tool used to support the administration of medications. The tool can be used to avoid mistakes since it can check the whole process from the evaluation of prescribed medicines to its administration (Vaidotas et al., 2019).

Search Strategy

Search Terms

As a group, we decided to research the interventions nurses should consider to minimize medication errors in healthcare settings. After reviewing various literature, we identified some specific keywords to consider when searching for information. These include medication error, interventions, harm reduction, emergency medical records, and emergency medical services.

Library Database

After identifying the research topic, the next step was to identify an article I would use to conduct the study. I keyed in words into Google scholar and found a scholarly article that I downloaded and sent to the professor for approval.

Availability of Articles

There are about 200 articles available on google scholar, which discusses the same topic. I went through them and decided to choose the most appropriate “Medication errors in emergency departments.”

Refinement Decisions

Changed Decision

The decision that has changed from my initial search strategy is adding extra articles that support my primary information article. I realized some other reports have relevant information that is suitable for my study.

The rationale for the changed decision

The rationale for changing my original decision was because I wanted additional information to support my study.

Availability of Articles

After analyzing the articles relevant to my study question, I identified 20 articles that specifically discussed healthcare workers' interventions to reduce medication errors among hospitalized patients.

Final Articles

Final Decision

Selection of Relevant Articles

I decided to choose the article because it discusses healthcare workers' measures to minimize medication errors in the emergency department. My study was supposed to study the interventions to reduce medication errors among nurses in a healthcare setting; thus, it was a suitable article.

Levels of Evidence

Topic Address Method

The study's objective is to determine the interventions nurses should consider to reduce medication errors in healthcare settings. The article by Vaidotas et al. (2019) supports this study because it mainly discusses measures to minimize medication errors in the emergency department.

Study type

This study is a quantitative study involving 164 hospitalized patients. The patients were asked questions regarding their experiences while undertaking various medications.

Level of Evidence: Evidence Level Pyramid

My research is classified under level two because it is a single randomized controlled test.

Summary

Medication means avoidable action that may cause improper use of drugs or harm the patient while it controls the patient. According to the information form, the United States CDC, about 700 thousand cases in the emergency department were associated with medication errors in 2012. Also, there were 120 thousand preventable hospitalizations, with a projected expenditure of approximately US$ 3.5 billion. “What are the interventions nurses should consider to minimize medication errors in healthcare settings?” When beginning this study, I searched for various articles and found about 200 relevant ones. After further analysis, I finally settled on about 30 reports based on relevance with my study topic. Finally, there was a change of decision with the rationale being additional extra relevant articles to support my primary writing.

References

Choi, Y. J. & Kim, H. (2019). Effect of pharmacy‐led medication reconciliation in emergency departments: A systematic review and meta‐analysis. Journal of clinical pharmacy and therapeutics, 44(6), 932-945. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcpt.13019

Khalil, H., Bell, B., Chambers, H., Sheikh, A., & Avery, A. J. (2017). Professional, structural and organizational interventions in primary care for reducing medication errors. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, (10). https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.CD003942.pub3

Vaidotas, M., Yokota, P. K. O., Negrini, N. M. M., Leiderman, D. B. D., Souza, V. P. D., Santos, O. F. P. D., & Wolosker, N. (2019). Erros de medicação em unidades de pronto atendimento: prontuário eletrônico, barreira eficaz?. Einstein (Sao Paulo)., 17(4). DOI: 10.31744/einstein_journal/2019GS4282