Administering Medication Safety: Nurses' Key Role in Establishing Patient Safety - Essay Sample

Introduction

Administration of medication safety in the health sector is paramount towards establishing patient safety. In the medical sector, the highest number of professionals are the nurses, and the nurses get into direct contact with patients more often. Therefore a more significant responsibility towards achieving medication safety falls in the hands of practicing nurses. Safety quality in the health sector is affected by medication administration errors (Gholipour et al., 2016). This paper brings to the table potential and best practice solutions to address the medical administration errors and the nurses' role and other state holders in the medical sector to address medication administration errors.

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Medication Administration Errors

Errors when administering medication pose a patient safety risk since the errors cause severe health damage. Factors leading to medication administration errors are previous medication administration, application of the wrong dosage, skipping dosage when administering medicine to patients, administration of substantial medicine proportion, and wrong preparation of medicine to be administered in a patient by the nurse (Gholipour et al., 2016). Untimely medication administration errors occur when the professional administering the medication to the patient does not administer the medicine on time expected. Untimely medical administration of medicine exposes the patient at the risk of the current condition worsening. In very adverse situations, the patient faces death.

The wrong medication application is also an error committed by nurses in the medical sector. Application of the wrong medication to the patient harms the patient medical safety as the error leads to the development of more adverse medical conditions in the patient. Wrong medication application also worsens the patient's health state. Skipping dosage is a medication error also evident in the health sector by the nurses. In the health sector, the admitted patient care under the nurses' direct care is responsible for their medication. When the dosage is omitted, the patient is exposed to medical safety risk as the health condition the patient is suffering from is not adequately managed (Gorgich et al., 2016). When a health condition is not adequately managed, the patient may have adverse medical conditions and develop other medical conditions. Poor management of medical conditions not only poses a medical safety risk but also leads to the death of the patient.

Administration of substantial medicine proportion error is a safety risk posed to the patient by the medical sector nurses. Substantial medicine proportion causes poor management of health-related conditions in patients exposing them to current conditions worsening. The patient's age determines medicine proportions, which means that medicine proportions vary from an individual to another. Wrong preparation of medicine is an error committed by nurses in the health sector. Wrong medicine preparation happens when the solvents mixed to prepare medicine are not adequately mixed (Gorgich et al., 2016). Wrong preparation medicine also occurs when the right quantity of solvents used in medicine preparation is not recommended. Poorly prepared medicine administered in a patient risks the patient's medical safety. Poorly prepared medicine leads to deterioration of the patient’s health condition and the development of health disorders that the patient was not suffering from.

Solutions to Improve Patient Security

Practical solutions meant to improve patient security in the health sector to curb medical administration must be enforced. The solutions should also be cost-effective. Practical solutions to prevent medical errors when administering medicine to the patients include excising alertness in medications involved in high-risk health disorders, a reporting system adoption, specification of the drug indication, vivid use of medication abbreviations, and considering the patient’s age before medication prescription.

When administering medication to patients with high-risk medical disorders, excising alertness is paramount to eradicating medicine administration errors. For instance, when dealing with a patient with deep vein thrombosis, the health practitioner should prescribe warfarin for four weeks and ensure that the practitioner reassesses the patient on every visit. When administering medication, excising alertness helps improve patient safety and reduces medication costs (Gorgich et al., 2016). Adopting a reporting system in the health sector in medication administration has a significant impact on improving patient safety. A reporting system helps to make necessary changes towards preventing medical errors recurring, such as overdosing. Adopting g a reporting system is also cost-effective as costs incurred when managing medication administration errors are not incurred.

Specification of the indication from the drug helps in improving the patient's medical safety in medication administration. Some medicinal drugs have multiple uses. The drugs' administration will depend on the health disorder a patient is suffering from. Diagnosis details should be provided to the pharmacist, which should help them give precise dosage to the patient. That improves patient safety and eliminates the costs incurred when managing outcomes of the wrong dosage in medicine administration in the health sector.

The vivid use of abbreviations when administering medication to the patient in the health sector is a measure to improve patient safety. The health sector is surrounded by a wide range of phrases which have been simplified into abbreviations. These abbreviations, if not vividly employed, may lead to medicine administration errors. For example, the QD abbreviation means once daily and may be confused with QID, which means four times a day (Mozafari & Borji, 2017). That abbreviation confusion may cause overdosing, a medicine administration error that has adverse effects on the individual's health. It is recommended that abbreviations when writing medical statements not be used ultimately, which will eradicate misinterpretations.

Patient's age consideration is a useful measure when improving the patient's safety when administering medicine. It helps curb wrong medicine proportions error. Two populations that are sensitive to medication administration are the children and the elderly. For example, paracetamol 500mg tablets should not be given to children age below ten years (Mozafari & Borji, 2017). The administration of medicine to a specific age population should be done with extreme caution to prevent slacking.

Care to Increase Patient Safety with Medication Administration

Nurses can coordinate care in the health sector towards improving patient safety with medication administration hence reducing unnecessary costs. To improve patient safety, nurses can support and implement the safety culture in health institutions. That can be done by employing useful communication modes, ensuring the performance of primary care, and ensuring routine checks (Mozafari & Borji, 2017). The nurses can also engage patients to understand their suggestions. The nurses should also get involved by assuming positions in the developed patient safety department.

Stakeholders in Safety Enhancements with Medical Administration

In the drive towards patient safety enhancements in medical administrations, the nurses can identify different stakeholders from different organizations and departments in existence. Stakeholders that nurses can coordinate with to improve patient safety in medication administration are the senior leadership, state agencies dealing with human safety and security. The patients and the nurses can also involve state legends in the drive towards patient safety enhancements administration.

Conclusion

Medication safety in the health sector towards the patient is affected by previous medication administration, applying the wrong dosage, skipping dosage when administering medicine to patients, administering substantial medicine proportion, and wrong preparation of medicine errors committed by medical personnel. Improving medical administration safety entails excising alertness in medications, a reporting system adoption, specification of the drug indication, vivid use of medication abbreviations, and considering the patient's age before medication prescription. Nurses in the health sector can also improve medication administration safety by supporting safety culture, effective communication, involvement, and other community stakeholders.

References

Gholipour, K. H., Mashallahi, & Hoorijani, F. (2016). Prevalence and causes of common medication administration errors in nursing. Journal of Chemical and Pharmaceutical Sciences, 2016, 18-21.http://eprints.dums.ac.ir/id/eprint/486

Grgich, E. A. C., Barfroshan, & Yaghoobi, M. (2016). Investigating the causes of medication errors and strategies to prevention of them from nurses and nursing student viewpoint. Global journal of health science, 8(8), 220.https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5016359/

Mozafari, M., & Borji, M. (2017). Evaluating the rate of nurses' errors in administering medication orders in general departments of hospitals in Ilam. Iranian Journal of Nursing Research, 12(5), 21-26.http://ijnr.ir/browse.php?a_id=1965&slc_lang=en&sid=1&printcase=1&hbnr=1&hmb=1