Annotated Bibliography and Summary- Medication Errors

Annotated Bibliography and Summary- Medication Errors

Overview

Medication errors occur as the result of failures in treating a patient. Such errors present a serious health issue and a significant pushback on efforts made toward providing quality health care. Medication errors can occur due to prescription faults and errors, manufacturing drug formulation errors, dispensing and administration errors, and patient monitoring errors. Medication errors can cause mild to adverse effects on patients, resulting in harm or even death. A majority of the medication errors that occur within hospital settings due to nursing errors are preventable. Such errors can be intervened in response to the factors that lead to such errors. Potential interventions include medical staff education, improving drug packaging, patient medication safety training, adherence to drug administration guidelines, and use of medication administration technology. As giving medication is a central role in nursing, a nurse needs to understand the causes of medication errors and how to prevent them during the patient treatment process.

Identifying Peer-reviewed Articles Relevant to Medication Errors

In order to identify scholarly and academic peer-reviewed studies focused on medication errors, an extensive search was conducted using the PubMed search engine, which directed most of the search results to the Wiley Online Library. Due to the high number of search results returned for a search in the Wiley Online Library, the search was limited to papers published between 2018 and 2022. Keywords such as “medication administration,” “medication errors,” “medication safety,” and “medication error prevention” were applied during the database searches. The credibility and relevance of the articles identified and selected were assessed based on various elements: an academic peer-reviewed journal, year of publication, research methods applied, and the article’s relevance to my research. All of the selected papers met these selection criteria.

Annotated Bibliography

Alomari, A., Sheppard‐Law, S., Lewis, J., & Wilson, V. (2020). Effectiveness of Clinical Nurses’ interventions in reducing medication errors in a pediatric ward. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 29(17-18), 3403-3413. https://doi.org/10.1111/jocn.15374

The main objective of this action research (AR) three-phase quantitative study was to evaluate the effectiveness of various interventions developed and implemented by nurses within clinical settings to reduce medication administration error rates and improve nursing practice in medication administration. Alomari et al. (2020) recruited six clinical pediatric nurses in a quantitative action research study to help collect medical data, develop interventions and evaluate the interventions within a clinical setting. The study concluded that clinical nurses’ engagement in action research improved practice and helped nurses develop several interventions. Nurse-developed interventions reduced the frequency of errors in medication administration. The authors further suggest the active engagement of nurses in research as an approach to reducing medication errors and improving nurses’ practice. This study is relevant to my research as it highlights the importance of nursing research in developing evidence-based interventions to prevent and reduce medication errors and improve nursing practice.

Bam, V., Safowaa, A., Lomotey, A. Y., & Nkansah, A. S. (2021). Nursing students’ perception of medical errors: A cross‐sectional study in a university. Nursing Open, 8(6), 3152-3160. https://doi.org/10.1002/nop2.1028

This study aimed to assess nursing students’ perceptions of medical errors. The researchers collected data from 200 medical students in a 4-year program at the University of Ghana to explore how the nursing students perceived errors in the administration of medications. They found that nursing students feel that medication errors were the most frequent medical errors and that they occurred as a result of negligence. The students linked nurses and doctors as the most likely to cause medication errors. Most medical errors caused by medical and nursing students were a result of limited supervision. This research paper is relevant to my research as it provides insight into how nursing students perceive medical errors, especially medication administration errors. The authors also explain why medication errors occur, how they occur, who is likely to cause medication errors, and how to prevent and reduce the occurrence of medication errors.

Jessurun, J., Hunfeld, N., Roo, M., Onzenoort, H., Rosmalen, J., Dijk, M., & Bemt, P. (2022). Prevalence and determinants of medication administration errors in clinical wards: A two‐centre prospective observational study. Journal of Clinical Nursing. https://doi.org/10.1111/jocn.16215

This research article focused on identifying the prevalence and determinants of medication administration errors (MAEs). Jessurun et al. (2020), in this prospective observational study, used data collected by observing nursing during dose administration. All administered doses were compared against standard medication prescriptions and protocols to identify errors. Medication administration errors prevalence, the researchers found that omission and wrong medication handling were the most frequent medication administration errors and were likely to cause harm or reduce the efficiency of medications. The researchers also noted that oral liquid medications, ointments, injections, and infusion medications were prone to medication administration errors compared to solid medicines. The study concluded that medication administration errors have a high frequency and that interventions for complex pharmaceutical forms and medication types prone to administration errors were critical in reducing such errors. This paper is relevant to my research. It highlights the prevalence of medication errors based on the type of errors and related medications, which informs the approaches to further research.

Sarfati, L., Ranchon, F., Vantard, N., Schwiertz, V., Larbre, V., & Parat, S. et al. (2018). Human-simulation-based learning to prevent medication error: A systematic review. Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice, 25(1), 11-20. https://doi.org/10.1111/jep.12883

This systematic review aimed to assess whether applying human‐simulation‐based learning to improve prescribers’ knowledge, skills, attitudes, and other medical staff could help prevent medication errors. The authors reviewed 21 studies that assessed simulation‐based learning programs within healthcare settings and utilized varied research methodologies. The systematic review found that proper regulation of simulation learning integrated with human factors could help train staff on managing exceptional and daily activity events. The authors’ main limitation in the review was a lack of long‐term assessment and real‐life extrapolation of human-based simulation learning programs and the scenarios and participant samples for such programs. This article is relevant to my research on medication errors: it highlights simulation-based learning as an approach to preventing and reducing MEs and the limitations of the studies in the systematic review. The information can help navigate the existing limitations easily when carrying out similar research.

Schlichtig, K., Dürr, P., Dörje, F., & Fromm, M. (2021). Medication Errors during Treatment with New Oral Anticancer Agents: Consequences for Clinical Practice Based on the AMBORA Study. Clinical Pharmacology &Amp; Therapeutics, 110(4), 1075-1086. https://doi.org/10.1002/cpt.2338

This article aims to highlight and classify the frequencies and causes of medication errors and the harm such errors cause to patients, with a focus on oral antitumor therapy and related medication errors. The authors used data from the AMBORA trial database, an open-label multicenter study for Medication Safety with Oral Antitumor Drugs. They analyzed the data to identify the nature, types, and consequences of medication errors related to the trial. The study found that medication errors and patient harm occurred due to concomitant medication, patient medication errors, and drug-drug and drug-food interactions. The authors suggested the application of clinical decision support systems to help identify cases of medication errors. They further suggest using specialist multidisciplinary approaches to help improve patient safety. This paper is relevant to my research as it highlights types of medication errors, the level of occurrence, and the harm they may cause.

Summary

From this research and annotation, I have learned that:

The medical staff, especially nurses, face a lot of uncertainty when prescribing drug regimens to diverse patients,

That uncertainty influences all prescription and administration decisions,

A medical error occurs when medication benefits are less than the potential harm,

Human errors contribute to the prevalence of medication errors,

Medication administration errors are the major medical errors,

Most medication errors occur within clinical and hospital settings due to errors made by nurses and doctors.

Nursing research can help develop evidence-based interventions to reduce and prevent medication errors,

Continuous medical staff education, skills development, and adequate supervision can reduce and prevent common medication errors,

Multidisciplinary medical teams’ collaborations can reduce the prevalence of medication errors.

References

Alomari, A., Sheppard‐Law, S., Lewis, J., & Wilson, V. (2020). Effectiveness of Clinical Nurses’ interventions in reducing medication errors in a pediatric ward. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 29(17-18), 3403-3413. https://doi.org/10.1111/jocn.15374

Bam, V., Safowaa, A., Lomotey, A. Y., & Nkansah, A. S. (2021). Nursing students’ perception of medical errors: A cross‐sectional study in a university. Nursing Open, 8(6), 3152-3160. https://doi.org/10.1002/nop2.1028

Jessurun, J., Hunfeld, N., Roo, M., Onzenoort, H., Rosmalen, J., Dijk, M., & Bemt, P. (2022). Prevalence and determinants of medication administration errors in clinical wards: A two‐centre prospective observational study. Journal of Clinical Nursing. https://doi.org/10.1111/jocn.16215

Sarfati, L., Ranchon, F., Vantard, N., Schwiertz, V., Larbre, V., & Parat, S. et al. (2018). Human-simulation-based learning to prevent medication error: A systematic review. Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice, 25(1), 11-20. https://doi.org/10.1111/jep.12883

Schlichtig, K., Dürr, P., Dörje, F., & Fromm, M. (2021). Medication Errors during Treatment with New Oral Anticancer Agents: Consequences for Clinical Practice Based on the AMBORA Study. Clinical Pharmacology & Amp; Therapeutics, 110(4), 1075-1086. https://doi.org/10.1002/

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Please use this case study for this assignment and cover all areas needed. Thank you. The topic is MEDICATION ERRORS AND HERE IS A SHORT DESCRIPTION OF IT: Short Description:

Annotated Bibliography and Summary- Medication Errors

A medication error is a preventable adverse effect of a patient taking the wrong medication or dosage, whether or not it is evident or harmful to the patient. Medication errors can be a source of serious patient harm, including death.

Potential Intervention Approaches:
– Medical staff education
– Packaging improvements
– Patient medication safety training
Keywords for Articles:
medication administration, medication errors, medication safety