Reviewing and structuring policies and procedures on medication Errors
Purpose of the Policy
Medication/Medication error is among the fundamental wellspring of death in most healthcare organizations in the U.S. (Nguyen et al., 2018). Medication errors occur in the medication-use system resulting in underhandedness to the person taking the medication. Reports from the FDA show that more than 100,000 reports of medication errors are registered consistently. Medication errors are reported to contribute to approximately 530,000 injuries in patients (Ferrah et al., (2017). Errors occur at different times during medication handling. Errors can happen when medication is embraced inappropriately or administered inappropriately.
Causes and Consequences of Medication Errors in Healthcare
Medication errors result from administering the wrong medications to the wrong patient, giving patients the wrong medication measurements, and irrational utilization of medication where high medication portions cannot be justified embraced to patients (Vogelsmeier et al. 2022).
Wrong medication administration often results from confirmation predisposition where a healthcare provider utilizes natural prompts of variety between medications resulting in lessened watchfulness and administration of wrong medication. As a result, medication errors split the distinction and changed patient health and prosperity by resulting in hospitalization and extreme fatalities (Cerqueira et al., 2021).
As indicated by Dirik et al. (2019), medication errors occur across all healthcare organizations across the globe. The organizations have confronted an expansion in lawsuits considering medication errors, clinical parental figures have lost their practicing licenses, and different patients have lost their lives in light of medication errors. Research by (Assunção-Costa et al. (2022) highlights the medication administration errors in healthcare organizations and their inescapability.
Research Sources and Criteria for Identifying Medication Error Evidence
The proof of medication errors is obtained from the Capella University Library. I utilized four databases: Nursing and Associated Health Database, General Health Database, Health and Clinical Collection, and PubMed Central. The inclusion and exclusion criteria were critical in this pursuit to guarantee the literature obtained was relevant, peer-overviewed, and current.
NURS FPX 8030 Assessment 5: Creation of Policy or Procedure outlines the journal’s inclusion criteria, which require that the articles be peer-reviewed and published within the last five years. Thus, no article was to be utilized if it was written before 2018. Additionally, the journal publications were accessible in full text for easier accessibility and contained relevant information on medication errors.
Considering the PICO(T) question, my search strategy included the use of specific keywords like “medication error” OR “nurse medication error” AND “electronic medication administration system
PICO(T) Question
How does the utilization of automated measurement alerts with hard stops assist with diminishing medication errors resulting from the administration of wrong portions contrasted with the current early notification system with soft stops, tested within a time of about two months?
P-Clinical attendants abrogating automated portion cautioning alerts
I-Implement an automated portion alert system with hard stops C-The current portion system with soft stops
O-Lessened reports of medication error resulting from the administration of wrong medication portions
T Two months to see the expected outcome
Importance of developing the Policy
Developing this Policy is vital considering the general need to address medication errors. As the Director of (Vogelsmeier et al., 2022), I understand that the medication error issue has greatly impacted the organization.
In my exploration, I understood the essential reason for medication error is outdated policies that can’t help contradict the current healthcare industry. With this at the top of the priority list, it becomes important to audit the current Policy and complete vital improvements (Moralejo et al., 2017).
NURS FPX 8030 Assessment 5 Creation of Policy or Procedure
The updated Policy is surveyed as an effective step for medication application and is created consistent with the current legislation procedures of the area and state healthcare regulations on patient safety (Melnyk & Fineout-Overholt, 2019).). The Policy equivalently constitutes community expectations and as a rule of healthcare. Therefore, this Policy will effectively decrease medication risks and promote the organizational collective mission and objectives.
Population Affected by the Policy
The target population for this Policy will be the healthcare suppliers, clinical attendants, doctors, doctor, organizations administration, patients, and their families. The Policy will cater to the healthcare organization’s necessities and the community’s requirements to get quality healthcare administrations.
Definitions
Medication Error
This suggests any preventable event that results in inappropriate medication use or patient wickedness while the clinical parental figure controls the medication. The events are related to professional practice and healthcare procedures like requesting medication, dispensing, suggesting, communicating, and checking.
Administration error
This suggests the inappropriate utilization of medication during medication administration to patients. This incorporates patient administration of the wrong medication, medication administration to the wrong patient, and administration of out-of-date medication.
Prescription error
This suggests medication errors resulting from medication transcription errors, suggesting the wrong medication, portion, or route, and inability to embrace medication.
Dispensing error
This suggests medication errors resulting from dispensing the wrong medication, portion, or route, wrong naming, and dispensing out-of-date medication.
Policy Statement
The Policy will incorporate the key procedure of consulting with the stakeholders, drafting the Policy, reviewing the Policy, and developing and implementing the Policy (Karimian et al., 2018).The organization sees that with technological innovations, it is important that new measures are created to combat errors during treatment.
Similarly, the organization supports the Policy since it intends to achieve risk mitigation, great consideration, and consistency of care. This will be achieved by a reduction of the mortality rate brought about by medication errors considerably. The Policy will permit a quarterly outline to evaluate its effectiveness after its first year of implementation.
NURS FPX 8030 Assessment 5: Creation of Policy or Procedure addresses medication errors by prioritizing the delivery of quality healthcare services (Insanities et al., 2019). Patient health will be the priority, and healthcare providers will fulfill their roles in delivering healthcare services according to their ethical standards.
Organizational leadership will be held accountable for any lapses in patient safety due to medication errors. This initiative emphasizes the responsibility of leadership to support healthcare staff and professionals in reducing medication errors (Wheeler et al., 2018). The approach will require a collaborative effort.
Consultation with key stakeholders
This will incorporate gathering input from patients, their families, and healthcare professionals. This is important because different medication errors occur through the essential inability of the patient to the medication and treatment process and the critical inability of healthcare professionals to develop policies (Hammoudi et al., 2018).
The criticism from patients and healthcare suppliers like attendants will effectively guarantee the quality and diversity of the thoughts in the Policy.
Drafting of the Policy
Developing the Policy will incorporate a literature review with the key stakeholders to better understand the requirements in developing the Policy. The team will audit different studies and the organization’s practices. Additionally, this will investigate rules and policies for the organization to deal with patient safety.
Reviewing the Policy
After the development of the Policy, the standards will be evaluated to outline the Policy’s effectiveness and applicability in the organization. This will entail a pilot trial where the Policy will be implemented and monitored to determine its effectiveness in diminishing medication errors. The audit will be done after each quarter of the year, and the outcomes will be documented.
Implementing the Policy
After the study and determination of the expected outcome, the Policy will be implemented in the organization to direct the practice of care and conveyance of healthcare administrations. Read more about our sample NURS FPX 8030 Assessment 5 Creation of Policy or Procedure for complete information about this class.
References
Assunção-Costa, L., Costa de Sousa, I., Alves de Oliveira, M. R., Ribeiro Pinto, C., Machado, J. F. F., Valli, C. G., & de Souza, L. E. P. F. (2022). Drug administration errors in Latin America: A systematic review. PloS one, 17(8), e0272123.
Cerqueira, O., Gill, M., Swar, B., Prentice, K. A., Gwin, S., & Beasley, B. W. (2021). The effectiveness of interruptive prescribing alerts in ambulatory CPOE to change prescriber behavior & improve safety. BMJ Quality & Safety, 30(12), 1038-1046.
Dirik, H. F., Samur, M., Seren Intepeler, S., & Hewison, A. (2019). Nurses’ identification and reporting of medication errors. Journal of clinical nursing, 28(5-6), 931-938.
Ferrah, N., Lovell, J. J., & Ibrahim, J. E. (2017). Systematic review of the prevalence of medication errors resulting in hospitalization and death of nursing home residents. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 65(2), 433-442.
Hammoudi, B. M., Ismaile, S., & Abu Yahya, O. (2018). Factors associated with medication administration errors and why nurses fail to report them. Scandinavian journal of caring sciences, 32(3), 1038-1046.
Karimian, Z., Kheirandish, M., Javidnikou, N., Asghari, G., Ahmadizar, F., & Dinarvand, R. (2018). Medication errors associated with adverse drug reactions in Iran (2015-2017): A P-method approach. International journal of health policy and management, 7(12), 1090.
Melnyk, B. M., & Fineout-Overholt, E. (2019). Evidence-based practice in nursing and healthcare: A guide to best practice (4th ed.). Wolters Kluwer Health.
Moralejo, D., Ogunremi, T., & Dunn, K. (2017). Scientific writing: Critical Appraisal Toolkit (CAT) for assessing multiple types of evidence. Canada Communicable Disease Report, 43(9), 176.
Manias, E., Cranswick, N., Newall, F., Rosenfeld, E., Weiner, C., Williams, A., … & Kinney, S. (2019). Medication error trends and effects of person‐related, environment‐related, and communication‐ related factors on medication errors in a pediatric hospital. Journal of pediatrics and child health, 55(3), 320-326.
Nguyen, M. N. R., Mosel, C., & Grzeskowiak, L. E. (2018). Interventions to reduce medication errors in neonatal care: a systematic review. Therapeutic advances in drug safety, 9(2), 123-155.
Vogelsmeier, A., Jacobs, A., Owen, C., Mosa, A. S. M., & Subramanian, R. (2022). Medication Identification Device to Reduce Medication Errors in Nursing Homes: A Controlled Pilot Study. Journal of Gerontological Nursing, 48(4), 5-11.
Wheeler, A. J., Scahill, S., Hopcroft, D., & Stapleton, H. (2018). Reducing medication errors at transitions of care is everyone’s business. Australian prescriber, 41(3), 73.
