Advancements in technology have had a huge impact on all industries; technology in healthcare has resulted in an increase in health outcomes through the provision of quality care. Despite this positive impact, many challenges are being experienced in terms of providing care. One major challenge is medication errors, which have reduced patients’ safety. All healthcare stakeholders have a role to play to minimize medication errors, which are putting the lives of patients at risk. Reducing medication errors will increase the safety and quality of health care.
As a nurse, I have the responsibility of providing quality care to patients to improve their wellbeing. My work involves directly working with patients since their admission into the hospital until their release. One major task performed by nurses is medical administration. Nurses act as intermediaries between the physician and the doctor, whereby all prescribed medication must be provided to the patient by the nurse. During medication administration, nurses must ensure that they get everything correct to avoid errors, which adversely impacts the patients' safety.
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Last year, I worked as a volunteer in a community health facility specializing in taking care of old people who had some health problems. A nurse, who was also a volunteer made a mistake of administering too much insulin to the patient suffering from type 2 diabetes, which resulted in severe hypoglycemia. The patient succumbed to hypoglycemia, which resulted in the nurse's prosecution, who later lost her license. This incident helped me realize the importance of the correct medication to reduce medication errors. From this incident, I developed awareness about patient safety, which has since increased my interest in the wellbeing and safety of patients.
Obtaining Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles
I used Summon, the search engine for Capella University Library, to access all online databases that relate to medicine. Some of the databases I accessed are ProQuest, PubMed, and CINAHL Plus. To obtain peer-reviewed journal articles in these databases, I utilized keywords, such as medical administration, medical safety, and medication errors. I first employed the basic search technique in the databases, which returned many, not so relevant articles. Lack of the relevant materials I needed prompted me to use the advanced search, whereby I managed to filter my search by only searching for peer-reviewed scholarly articles. Numerous returned results, such as books and conference proceedings, but I choose journal articles, medicine, nursing, and pharmacy as the subjects and articles published within the last five years.
Assessing the Credibility of the Sources
For academic research work, credible and relevant sources are required. For this assignment, I selected only peer-reviewed articles published within the last five years. I assessed if the articles were backed up by scientific research, reputable authors, and had references. After assessing the credibility of the article, I further assessed whether the articles were related to the topic "medication Errors," and they contained relevant and up-to-date facts and opinions regarding medication errors. I checked to confirm whether each article had an objective and supporting evidence, such as a study or references.
Annotated Bibliography
Scmidt, K., Taylor, A., & Pearson, A. (2017). Reduction of Medication Errors: A Unique Approach. Journal of Nursing Care Quality, 32 (2), 150-156. doi:10.1097/NCQ.0000000000000217
This article identifies and explains the minimal number of steps that could be used to create reliability in medication and reduce medication errors. The authors used risk assessment to analyze the historical errors in the hospital setting. In the research, the authors identified three key steps that could be used when administering any medication. They hypothesized that the application of a unique approach in healthcare would reduce errors. The first step included evaluating the tubing setup. Nurses were required to verify the medication tubing to ensure that it is connected to the patient on the injection site.
The second step involved standardizing nursing practice to reduce nursing errors. Standardization involved the use of the electronic health records system. Before administering any medication, the EHR would require the nurse to verify the medication to ensure that the correct medication is administered. The final step involved reducing behavior change that often results from competing values and complex medical processes.
The research results were aligned with the hypothesis, where there was a 22% decrease in medication errors when applying these three steps. The authors recommend that the use of these three steps should be used to help reduce medical errors.
Gorgich, E. A., Barfroshan, S., Ghoreishi, G., & 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), 220-227. doi:10.5539/gjhs.v8n8p220
In this article, the authors report the findings of their investigation on the major causes of errors. The article also covers the strategies that could be used to reduce errors. The authors used a cross-sectional study that involved 327 nurses at khatam-al-anbia and other sixty-two nursing and midwifery interns at Zahedan school in 2015. the researches used a T-test and ANOVA to analyze the statistics.
The authors found that many errors were due to tiredness due to huge workloads of nurses and medication calculation errors in nursing students. According to the nurses' and nursing students' opinions, the workload in hospitals should be reduced by increasing the workforce. This would reduce pressure, resulting in fewer medication errors. Also, a proper unit of medical calculation should be established. The authors recommend that using electronic medication could reduce medication errors.
Izadpanah, F., Nikfar, S., Imcheh, F., Amini, M., & Zargaran, M. (2018). Assessment of Frequency and Causes of Medication Errors in Pediatrics and Emergency Wards of Teaching Hospitals Affiliated to Tehran University of Medical Sciences (24 Hospitals). Journal of Medicine and Life, 11 (4), 299-305. doi:10.25122/jml-2018-0046
This article evaluates the frequency, causes, and common types of errors in emergency and pediatric wards. The authors used a descriptive study that involved 423 nurses at Tehran University in 2017. Data for the study was obtained through a 3-part questionnaire and analyzed using SPSS and results represented as a frequency percentage, average, and standard deviation.
The authors found that 41.9 cases of errors were reported, where most of them were in men. Most errors were reported in the evening shifts followed by night and morning shifts. The authors identified that the wrong dose, time, dosing technique, and confusion between patients were the most prevalent error sources. The authors recommend that drug prescription methods be revised, and nurses' workload should be reduced to reduce errors.
Lessons From the Research
The research helped me obtain plenty of knowledge regarding medication errors from experts in the field of medicine through peer-reviewed journals. The research helped me understand the main causes and interventions against medication errors; the main causes of errors were huge workloads and patient and medication confusion. Schmidt, Taylor, and Pearson (2018) helped me learn a new approach of reducing medication errors by checking the workability of the medicine tubing, standardizing medical practice, and reducing behavior change resulting from complex medical processes. Additionally, creating this annotated bibliography enabled be to understand techniques to search for research materials in different databases using basic and advanced searches. This will help me in conducting my future research, where accessing resources will be easier. Also, I have managed to build a bank of resources that address patients' safety; from my repository, patient safety can be increased by reducing medication errors.
References
Gorgich, E. A., Barfroshan, S., Ghoreishi, G., & 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), 220-227. doi:10.5539/gjhs.v8n8p220
Izadpanah, F., Nikfar, S., Imcheh, F., Amini, M., & Zargaran, M. (2018). Assessment of Frequency and Causes of Medication Errors in Pediatrics and Emergency Wards of Teaching Hospitals Affiliated to Tehran University of Medical Sciences (24 Hospitals). Journal of Medicine and Life, 11 (4), 299-305. doi:10.25122/jml-2018-0046
Scmidt, K., Taylor, A., & Pearson, A. (2017). Reduction of Medication Errors: A Unique Approach. Journal of Nursing Care Quality, 32 (2), 150-156. doi:10.1097/NCQ.0000000000000217
