Running head: ETHICS AND LEGALITIES 1
The Ethic and Legalities of Medication Errors Disclosure
Name
Walden University
Week 2 Assignment
ETHICS AND LEGALITIES 2
The Ethics and Legalities of Medication Error Disclosure
As healthcare practitioners, medication errors is something they take very seriously
and most practitioners try to go over and beyond to make sure they do not endanger their
patients. According to the Institute of Medicine (IOM), they published an article titled “To
Err is Human,” this report was released in 1999 and reported that medication error was
responsible for 1 out of 131 outpatient and 1 out of 854 inpatient fatalities (Wittich, Burkle,
& Lanier, 2014). Medication errors are one error which can happen at any time starting from
when the prescriber prescribes the medication to the point of administration (Wittich, Burkle,
& Lanier, 2014). Efficient communication with pharmacist becomes vital to avoid exposing
patients to the dangers of medication errors. It is paramount for healthcare practitioners to
understand the medications they are prescribing and the side effects.
The scenario for this paper deals with one which the ANP inadvertently prescribes the
wrong medication to a patient. The ethical and legal implications of disclosing and not
disclosing the medication error will be discussed. In healthcare transparency and honesty is
encouraged and that includes reporting incidents such as medication errors, and healthcare
