NR452 Capstone Course-Medication Errors In Healthcare
Introduction
One of the primary priorities of the Joint Commission is the reduction of medication errors in healthcare. However, medication errors remain one of the leading causes of mortalities in the United States. Hospitals are implementing policies and strategies and policies to reduce medication errors, but clearly, a lot still needs to be done. This essay will discuss medication errors in healthcare. It will further outline how this topic is related to the NCLEX-RN examination blueprint. In addition, it will discuss the importance of medication errors to professional practice, describe patients’ health, and discuss the negative effects of failure to resolve medication errors on patients and professional practice.
Furthermore, it will describe which patients are affected by medication errors, resources that can support evidence-based practice related to medication errors, and identify the interventions that can be used to minimize medication errors. It will also discuss the ethical and legal implications and the challenges that the intervention will face. Furthermore, it will discuss the participants in the change process and, finally, quality improvement related to medication errors. This topic is related to “Assurance of a safe and effective care environment” since medication errors affect patient safety and result in patient mortality and morbidity. This NCLEX-RN ensures the protection of patients by healthcare professionals by implementing safety control mechanisms.
Importance
There are many prescription drugs and over-the-counter medications in the United States. In addition to this, there are other herbal medications and supplements. Due to this high number of drugs in the market, medication errors become unavoidable. Every year around 9000 patients succumb to medication errors (Tariq et al., 2020). More individuals experience medication-related adverse events, but they do not report them. Treating patients affected by medication errors costs the United States over $40 billion annually, with more than seven million patients affected (Tariq et al., 2020). In addition to these financial impacts, medication errors also cause physical and psychological pain to patients, decreased patient satisfaction, and growing mistrust in the healthcare delivery industry.
Common causes of medication errors include illegible handwriting, inefficient communication, confusion over products with similar packaging, and wrong drug selection (Tariq et al., 2020). Medication errors can occur due to human errors but mainly due to flawed systems that cannot detect errors (Tariq et al., 2020). Failure to implement strategies to minimize medication errors will result in negative patient outcomes, increased cost of healthcare services, decreased patient satisfaction, and patient mortality. Failure to implement strategies to minimize these errors can impact professional practice since nurses who make errors can be emotionally traumatized, which can lower their confidence and self-esteem (Chu, 2016). They can become guilty, fearful, embarrassed, and depressed for violating patient trust. In addition, they experience moral distress leading to job dissatisfaction.
Healthcare Disparities, Inequalities, and Interventions
Adverse drug events related to medication errors are many in hospital settings. There are three high-risk categories likely to be more affected by medication errors. They include children under five years who require dose adjustments, elderly individuals with chronic conditions, and ICU patients vulnerable to fatal consequences (Escrivá Gracia et al., 2019). Evidence-based practice is important in implementing any healthcare solution. Healthcare professionals can use many sources of information to implement EBP practices to minimize medication errors. They can access this information from the websites of organizations such as the CDC, the FDA, and the Joint Commission. In addition, they can retrieve scholarly articles from databases such as PubMed, and Cochrane Library. Medline and CINAHL, which have articles related to healthcare.
There are many disparities in healthcare, and medication errors are one of them. Studies have shown that women are more likely to be prescribed antibiotics with a greater probability of receiving inappropriate prescriptions (Piccardi et al., 2018). Race is also an issue, with blacks more likely to suffer medication errors compared to whites. In addition, individuals of low socioeconomic status are more likely to receive inappropriate prescriptions than wealthy individuals (Piccardi et al., 2018). Evidence-based solution for solving healthcare disparities related to medication is implementing culturally competent care. Cultural competence is the ability of healthcare delivery to serve diverse patients and meet their specific linguistic, behavioral, and cultural needs. Cultural competence can foster trust and improve communication hence enhancing patient safety and reducing medication errors (Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, 2019).
Medication errors can be prevented by using bar code medication administration (BCMA) technology, implementing medication error reporting systems, and educating nurses to maintain proficiency in dosage calculation (Chu, 2016). The best practice to minimize medication errors is the BCMA technology. BCMA reduces medication errors by electronically verifying the 5Rs of medication dispensing at the point of drug administration, ensuring that the right patient gets the right medication (Shah et al., 2016). Patients should be educated concerning the therapeutic effects of medications, the required dosage, and the potential side effects (Chu, 2016). Educating patients on the dosage and side effects will improve compliance with the instructions, minimizing medication errors. In addition to this, patients should be educated on potential drug interactions, preventing them from using drugs with the potential for fatal interactions.
Legal and Ethical Considerations
The primary goal of the healthcare delivery industry is to ensure patient safety. Addressing medical errors is in line with this goal. The ethical principle of non-maleficence aims to help this process. Non-maleficence ensures that healthcare professionals are obligated not to harm the patient (Haddad & Geiger, 2020). By addressing medication errors, patient harm will be reduced. Healthcare professionals responsible for causing medication can be liable to be fined, jail term, or even lose their jobs. Patients who have been affected by medication errors due to medication errors have a right to be fairly compensated (Kadivar et al., 2017). Hence, by addressing medication errors, hospitals and healthcare professionals can minimize lawsuits against them.
A nurse may cause a medication error and may face the dilemma of informing the patient or not. They should use the principle of autonomy to guide them. Patients have a right to know all information concerning their care plan. They should also report the areas to their superiors. Medical errors have legal consequences. To prevent them, nurses can report medication errors whenever they happen. This can enable the hospital legal team to get ahead of the issue and find a way of quietly solving the issue with the patient.
One of the challenges that can be faced in resolving is underreporting of medication errors by nurses. By not reporting medication errors due to fear of punishment, the hospital may not implement effective strategies to prevent the occurrence of such errors again (Aljadhey et al., 2014). The challenge that can be faced in preventing is that healthcare professionals have a false sense of security, and hence they can fail to confirm the required security checks necessary to prevent medication errors. This can lead to medication errors since the person who prescribed the medication would have made an error at the initial point.
Participants and Interdisciplinary Approach
A multidisciplinary team will be used in the implementation of strategies to minimize medication errors. They will include physicians, nurses, pharmacists, and laboratory technicians. Physicians will ensure that they concentrate enough and have the knowledge to write the correct prescriptions. Nurses are the ones who dispense drugs at the bedside, and hence they will need to countercheck the prescriptions to ensure they are accurate. Pharmacists are medication experts, and they dispense drugs that patients go home with. They will educate the patients and countercheck the prescriptions for accuracy. They will also educate other professionals on the pharmacology of drugs. The importance of a multidisciplinary team is that it will promote collaboration and communication resulting in improved patient safety.
Quality Improvement
Preventing and solving medication errors will result in enhanced patient outcomes. This will include increased patient safety, increased healthcare outcomes, low care costs, and enhanced patient experience and satisfaction (Tariq et al., 2020). By solving medication errors, nurses will have increased job satisfaction since their confidence and self-esteem will reduce the nurses’ turnover rates. The resource used to improve patient outcomes was the BCMA technology which minimized medication errors to improve patient outcomes. The resource that nurses use to improve their professional knowledge is evidence-based clinical guidelines on drug pharmacology which can improve their drug knowledge.
Conclusion
This assignment was aimed to discuss medication errors in healthcare. It described the effect of medication errors on patients and professionals and evidence-based practice that can be implemented to minimize medication errors. Furthermore, it described the ethical and legal implications of medication errors and the interdisciplinary team’s participation in implementing interventions to minimize medication errors. Healthcare professionals can use databases such as CINAHL, PubMed, and websites of government agencies to gain information on strategies to minimize medication errors. In addition to these, technologies such as BCMA can be implemented to minimize medication errors. Adressing medication errors is important since they negatively impact patient safety and increasing healthcare costs.
References
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. (2019). Cultural competence and patient safety. PSNet. https://psnet.ahrq.gov/perspective/cultural-competence-and-patient-safety
Aljadhey, H., Mahmoud, M. A., Hassali, M. A., Alrasheedy, A., Alahmad, A., Saleem, F., Sheikh, A., Murray, M., & Bates, D. W. (2014). Challenges to and the future of medication safety in Saudi Arabia: A qualitative study. Saudi Pharmaceutical Journal, 22(4), 326-332. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsps.2013.08.001
Chu, R. Z. (2016). Simple steps to reduce medication errors. Nursing, 46(8), 63-65. https://doi.org/10.1097/01.nurse.0000484977.05034.9c
Escrivá Gracia, J., Brage Serrano, R., & Fernández Garrido, J. (2019). Medication errors and drug knowledge gaps among critical-care nurses: A mixed multi-method study. BMC Health Services Research, 19(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-019-4481-7
Haddad, L. M., & Geiger, R. A. (2020, September 1). Nursing ethical considerations. National Center for Biotechnology Information. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK526054/
Kadivar, M., Manookian, A., Asghari, F., Niknafs, N., Okazi, A., & Zarvani, A. (2017). Ethical and legal aspects of patient’s safety: a clinical case report. Journal of medical ethics and history of medicine, 10. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6150915/
Piccardi, C., Detollenaere, J., Vanden Bussche, P., & Willems, S. (2018). Social disparities in patient safety in primary care: A systematic review. International Journal for Equity in Health, 17(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12939-018-0828-7
Shah, K., Lo, C., Babich, M., Tsao, N. W., & Bansback, N. J. (2016). Bar code medication administration technology: A systematic review of impact on patient safety when used with computerized prescriber order entry and automated dispensing devices. The Canadian Journal of Hospital Pharmacy, 69(5). https://doi.org/10.4212/cjhp.v69i5.1594
Tariq, R. A., Vashisht, R., Sinha, A., & Scherbak, Y. (2020). Medication dispensing errors and prevention. StatPearls: Treasure Island, FL, USA. https://europepmc.org/books/n/statpearls/article-24883/?extid=29763183&src=med
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Question 
NR452 Capstone Course-Medication Errors In Healthcare
NR452 Capstone Course
RUA- Capstone Evidence-Based Practice Paper Guidelines
NR452_RUA- Capstone Evidence-Based Guidelines Revised: 03/2021 1
Purpose
To analyze own performance on the integrated comprehensive assessments and reflect on areas of opportunity and
strategies to promote NCLEX-RN success and transition into practice. The student will apply the priority concept
(topic) to evidence-based professional practice upon which nurses have the ability to resolve or have a positive
impact. There is a focus on the healthcare disparities of the individual, as well as ethical and legal implications to
professional practice. The student will discuss how an interdisciplinary approach promotes quality improvement for
the patient and evidence-based professional practice, driving positive outcomes.
Course outcomes: This assignment enables the student to meet the following course outcomes:
- CO # 1: Synthesize knowledge from sciences, humanities, and nursing in managing the needs of humans as
consumers of healthcare in a patient-centered environment.(PO#1) - CO # 2: Integrate communication and relationship skills in teamwork and collaboration functioning effectively with
health team members and consumers of care.(PO#3) - CO # 3: Utilize information technology to manage knowledge, mitigate error, and support decision making with health
team members and consumers of care. (PO#8) - CO # 4 Integrate critical thinking, clinical reasoning skills, best current evidence, clinical expertise, and patient/family
preferences/values in the implementation of the nursing process. (PO# 4) - CO # 5: Explore the impact of professional standards, legislative issues, ethical principles, and values on professional
nursing, using data to monitor outcomes and improve quality and safety. (PO# 5, 6)
Due date: Your faculty member will inform you when this assignment is due. The Late Assignment Policy applies to
this assignment.
Total points possible: 250 points
NR452 Capstone Course-Medication Errors In Healthcare