For PROFESSIONAL RESEARCH WRITER ONLY

Running Head: HEALTHCARE CRITICAL THINKING 1

HEALTHCARE CRITICAL THINKING 2

Healthcare Critical Thinking

Erika Honcharik

Rasmussen

This paper is being submitted on November 12, 2015 for Jennifer Reeves Critical thinking course

Introduction

The most frequent types of medical mistakes are those associated with medications, and they act as a major root of avoidable adverse effects. In line with medical experts, it has been established that drug errors bear the possibility of causing impairment especially within pediatrics compared to the adult population. This is mainly because medication dosage blunders are extra evident under pediatrics treatment than in grownups because of the weight-based medicating determiners, fraction treating, and the need for decimal points in dosages. Thus, study has revealed there exist a greater possibility for opposing drug occurrence within the pediatric inpatient, and for this reason, healthcare providers must focus on the different tests attached to the kids treatment.

Case Scenario Definition

Having gone reviewed the pediatric patient’s chart, noticed the prescribed medication, and the follow-up administering of 100 mg. from the scenario some information is missing about the patient. For a nurse to dispense accurately pediatric prescription, one requires additional information that is not commonly found on an adult’s prescription. As such, the nurse will have to check the weight of the pediatric patient. This because most the medication administered in pediatric cases are dosed basing on the weight of the child and most often as it is in this case, it is not indicated on the prescription. The scenario also seems to have omitted other important information such allergies, and the kid’s date of birth.

Possible Long-Term Complications and Outcomes

It should be noted that most medication used in children cases are formulated and embalmed mainly for adult use. As such, prescriptions have to be set in unlike capacities or concentrations inside the specific healthcare scenery the pediatric administering is taking place. These processes require a series of alterations to the original medical dosages carried out in specific pediatric calculations, with which, chances of errors increase. Where errors have occurred, children and especially the very young, minor and unwell they are little tolerance for drug admission errors considering their bodily functions and organs are still tender and developing. Therefore, medication errors will most likely lead to the patients harm since the kids cannot express themselves efficiently to the healthcare givers about opposing effects caused by the medication.

Possible solutions

Nurses and healthcare facilities in general can adopt various strategies to ensure a reduction in medication errors. The first strategy would be to standardize, classify drugs efficiently, and establish routes for prescription administration. Secondly, it would be vital to create and sustain purposeful pediatric formulary systems guided by guidelines of medication assessment, section, and beneficial use. Also as a solution, the amount of absorptions and dosage strength of the highly vigilant prescriptions can be put to the least required in order to offer harmless care. The hospital can also assign a nurse trained in pediatrics to committees or teams responsible in the oversight of medication management. Finally, since patient weight will be used to determine the dosage, all children patients ought to have their weights taken in kilograms during admission to ensure the kilograms are used as the normal terminology for weights on prescription, for health records, and workforce communication.

The Final Selected Solution

The most viable solution would be to create and uphold efficient pediatric formulary systems guided by strategies of prescription assessment, section, and therapeutic use. This formula should be standardized around the weights in kilogram per dose of medication. This would be the best solution since most medication is administered in ration to body weight and where a formula has been established, it would make it easy for the medical personnel to administer medication to children with minimal chances of errors.

Reference

Tanner, C. A. (2006). Thinking like a nurse: A research-based model of clinical judgment in nursing. Journal of Nursing Education, 45(6), 204-211.