The Role of Nurses in Patient Safety - Special Academic Support

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Introduction

Risky medical practices are the root cause of avoidable exposure to patient risk in the global healthcare system. A large portion of these risks occurs during medication administration. Consider the case of Peter, a 75-year-old male with a history of arrhythmia. The doctor of Rythmol 150 mg gives Peter a written prescription after his routine visit to the clinic. The nurse in pharmacist fills his medication, and the patient uses his usual medication as per the right dosage. Peter starts experiencing nausea, sweating, and irregular heartbeats. After consultation with his physician, it was determined that the dispensing nurse gave Peter the wrong medication. The nurse blames the mistake on the doctors sloppy handwriting in the prescription document. The case above demonstrates a good scenario of a medication administration error that poses a risk to the patient. Therefore, this study looks at the error made during peters medicine prescription and use evidence-based solution to identify how the risk would have been avoided and the role of nurses in increasing patient safety.

The Evidence-Based Solution to Reduce the Medical Administration Error

Any avoidable incident that could result in improper medication use or patient damage when the medicine is under the healthcare professionals control is referred to as a medication error. Medication errors are inevitable; some adverse drug reactions are unavoidable and unpredictable (Flavin, 2018). Correspondingly, side effects are part of the accepted risks of treatments and are known and reduced by careful prescriptions to patients. Medical administration errors, patient compliance, dispensing, and compliance errors are some of the most common notable errors nurses perform, which pose a risk to patients. According to the Institute of Medicine (n.d.), dispensing errors can be reduced by actively improving communication between physicians and nurses, improving drug labeling, and providing patient information during prescriptions. In the case of Peter, there was an error in the dispensing of his prescription, which the lapse in communication between the prescribing nurse and the doctor may have caused.

The pharmacy setting is often intense and fast-paced, with high volumes of prescriptions, demanding patients, and insufficient staffing. The nurses must double-check patients prescriptions and seek clarification if there is doubt (Institute of Medicine, n.d.). In the case of Peter, the prescribing nurse did not clarify the prescription after discovering a slop in the handwriting in the prescription. Considering that Peter was in his routine visits to the clinic, the nurse should be conversant with the medication the patients use. If the nurse had noted a change in the patient intervention, the nurse should have consulted with the doctor to confirm. Since over 70% of all medical errors result from poor communication and are preventable, it has been demonstrated that effective communication impacts patient safety (Flavin, 2018). Nurses need to comprehend the idea of professional collaboration in todays workplace to function well as a team. The ability to function successfully with nursing and interprofessional teams, promoting open communication, mutual respect, and shared decision-making to provide quality patient care (Institute of Medicine, n.d.).

Role of Nurses in Increasing Patient Safety with Medication Administration and Cost Reduction

Patient safety and accuracy in medication administration encompasses five rights medicine administration dose, drug route, time, and right patient in making sure that there are no errors made that can pose a risk to patients (University of Southern Indiana, 2019). The nurses can help reduce medication administration safety risks by advocating for computerized entry of medicine prescriptions, single-use drug packages, safety alert medications, and patient barcoding. A perfect example is the barcode drug administration, which removes the wrong patient medication, and dose errors. Caregivers and patients admiration of the home setup causes the highest percentage of administration errors (University of Southern Indiana, 2019). Nurses can play an important role in educating patients and caregivers on how to take medicines at home and advising them to consult their physicians when unsure of drug administration. Therefore, nurses play a very vital role in increasing patient safety during medication administration since they are the primary contact person with the patients.

Stakeholders in the Medication Administration

The safety of patients is a vital component of quality nursing care. Nevertheless, the healthcare system is predisposed to errors that are detrimental to the safety of patients and medication administration (Ricciardi & Cascini, 2020). According to Doyle & McCutcheon (2019), nurses and other stakeholders, such as patients, government and legislative bodies, doctors, professional associations, caregivers, and accredited medical agencies, are responsible for ensuring medical administration and patient safety. The medical stakeholders can actively develop laws that oversee medicine administration, nurses employment, and education and develop new strategies and technology that reduce medical administration risks (Doyle & McCutcheon, 2019). The campaign to promote safe care involves nurses and will continue to involve them. The support network of healthcare continues to be heavily reliant on nurses.

Conclusion

In conclusion, patient safety is cautious when dispensing drugs to reduce the risks associated with mistakes made by nurses and ensure quality care is provided to patients. Nurses are encouraged to adhere to guidelines during administration and drug dispensing, creating a conducive patient environment. Nurses play a key role in making sure that the patient is getting the right medication, the right amounts, and the right ways of administration followed. In this case, the nurses are encouraged to form a dynamic communication behavior with the doctors to avoid confusion during dispensing of drugs.

References

Doyle, G. R., & McCutcheon, J. A. (2019). 6.2 safe medication administration clinical procedures for safer patient care. Opentextbc.ca. Web.

Flavin, B. (2018). What are QSEN competencies, and why are they important for nurses? | Rasmussen College. Rasmussen.edu. Web.

Institute of Medicine. (n.d.). Read Informing the Future: Critical Issues in Health, Fifth Edition at NAP.edu. In nap.nationalacademies.org. Web.

Ricciardi, W., & Cascini, F. (2020). Guidelines and Safety Practices for Improving Patient Safety. Textbook of Patient Safety and Clinical Risk Management, 318. Web.

The University of Southern Indiana. (2019). What Nurses Need to Know About Care Coordination. The University of Southern Indiana. Web.

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