Prevention of medication errors - Essay Example

Prevention of Medication Errors Preventing medication errors is not the job of a single individual or department. To achieve effective prevention ofmedication errors, it is imperative that a holistic effort is made by all concerned personnel and departments. Recommendations for the major entities are made as follows:Recommendations for Department and OrganizationThe organizations should establish policies of medication administration (Choo and Bucknall, 2010). Tasks can be adequately performed with the availability of sufficient personnel.

To achieve this, reasonable working hours and workload levels should be established. Drug products should be prepared in suitable work environments. Sources of error in the work environment like interruptions should be reduced. The program of quality improvement should be ongoing and systematic. It should be peer reviewed for safe medication use. Areas of responsibility and lines of authority in the hospital should be properly defined to order, administer, and dispense medication. Recommendations for Prescribers Prescribers should be updated on the current state of knowledge to be able to determine the suitable drug therapy.

Prescribers should evaluate the total status of the patient before prescribing further medications to determine appropriate drug interactions. Prescribers should avoid giving such vague directions as “take as directed” as particular instructions facilitate differentiation in the drugs. Prescribers should demonstrate exact strengths of dosage instead of specifying dosage form units. Recommendations for Pharmacists Pharmacists should personally provide nurses and prescribers with information regarding appropriate use of medications and therapeutic drug regiments.

Pharmacists should not guess the confusing medication orders’ intent. The work area where drugs are prepared should be kept clean and ordered. Pharmacists should preview the design and content of the forms of preprinted medication order, and maintain records to identify the recipients of erroneous products. Recommendations for Nurses Clinical nurses’ educators should inculcate all the required skills in the students to help them deter all types of errors while prescribing medication (Warburton, 2010).

Nurses practicing in the organized settings of health-care should be well-versed with the ordering of medication and the use of system. Identity of patients should be verified before the prescribed dose is administered. Personnel using the devices of medication administration should fully comprehend the possible causes of error and faults in operation. The patient-nurse ratio should be increased in each shift (Kim et al., 2011).Recommendations for Patients Patients should not hide any symptoms from the health-care providers.

They should inform the health-care providers about their practices of self-medication, if any, even if they drastically vary from the directions that have been prescribed. Patients should openly clarify their doubts about all treatments they receive. Patients should memorize the drugs’ names that they are prescribed along with the strengths of dosage. Patients should follow the directions while taking the medications after receiving counseling from an authorized provider of health-care regarding the medication’s appropriateness.

Conclusion Prevention of medication errors is an extremely important obligation on all personnel and departments involved in the provision of health-care. Errors in medication can be prevented with joint effort of departments, prescribers, pharmacists, nurses, and patients. References:Choo, J., Hutchinson, A., and Bucknall, T. (2010). Nurses role in medication safety. Journal of Nursing Management. 18(7): 853–861.Kim, K. S., Kwon, S. H., Kim, J. A., and Cho, S. (2011). Nurses perceptions of medication errors and their contributing factors in South Korea.

Journal of Nursing Management. 19(3): 346–353.Warburton P. (2010). Numeracy and patient safety: the need for regular staff assessment. Nursing Standard. 24(27): 42–44.