The Responsibility of Distributing Medications to Patients - Essay Example

The nurse, who is responsible for medication distribution while they are in the hospital has been identified as the source of significant errors when dealing with the responsibility of distributing medication. Nurses play a significant role in the life cycle of medication. The effectiveness of the medication, the dosage of the medication, and whether or not the patient receives the medication at all affect the way a medication is perceived by the patient.

The errors that have been identified have been those related to the inaccuracy of the dosage level and ensuring the appropriate people receive the correct medications. The effects of these errors have been the discontinuation of several medications, such as in the case of medication that treats Atrial Filibration. The patients that were receiving prescribed doses of amiodarone, flecainide, and sotalol took their care into their own hands when they started receiving “adverse effects” from these medications. With dosage modification, the medication could have been beneficial. The adherence to proper distribution Dosage levels influences real and perceived pharmaceutical benefits. If medication is misdiagnosed it affects how well the medication treats the imbalance and may have an impact on how a patient feels physically from day to day.
A Study that was recently completed in Australia described how older Australian were receiving antidepressant medications that treat conditions that were different from the conditions that the patients were experiencing. This is a prime example of what causes the discontinuation of potentially useful medication that has been given a false perception due to being in the hands of patients it was never meant to treat. One of the most effective marketing tools is word of mouth. This is a tool that can either generate a frenzy of referrals or a significant negative impression depending on the results of the medication.
The cause of the distribution errors generated by the nurses has been distractions. The distractions are from the hospital staff in general and the doctors in particular. The doctors are distracting the nurses with questions about the state of being of the patients who have received the medications they prescribe during their stay in the hospital. They are requiring the nurses to make judgments that they may not be qualified to make.

A pilot program was recently implemented in a pediatric teaching hospital. The name of this program is known as” medication at the bedside”. This program incorporates the pharmacy technician into the distribution process. The results have been a reduction in errors about the distribution of medication, as well as an increase in job satisfaction as expressed by the nurses. The nurses at this hospital say they have more time to spend with patients and it opens the line of communication they have with both the patients and the pharmacy technicians. This development is a positive step forward in gathering the type of information the doctors are looking for after they prescribe medication. With more time to spend with patients, they can make more observations, which in turn provide the doctors with more details with which to make decisions about the state of being of their patients. This does not negate the possibility that the nurses still may be making judgments that strictly should be the responsibility of the doctors. The type of distribution errors that were reduced as those associated with the waste of medication and the reduction in the number of errors being made. This development is significant when addressing the trend of patients taking a proactive stance in their treatment. The program has been designated a success which implies that the patients are recovering from their conditions. In the case of children, which is whom this pilot program serves, the parents are the ones making decisions about whether or not their children are recovering from their previous conditions. The waste reduction implies the parents have decided that the medication is helping rather than exacerbating the problem. The use of pharmacy technicians is a relatively new technique that may result in the same burnout felt by nurses. Why is this happening? Perhaps it is happening because someone else is still making the judgments that doctors should be making themselves. What we might see in the future is a reduction in the errors made by nurses and an increase in distribution errors made by pharmacy technicians due to distractions. The doctors may move from questioning the nurse about the state of being of their patients and now has a new middleman in the distribution process from which to retrieve answers from.

For the time being this pilot program is a success, and has revealed some very important facts. These facts are that nurses are not satisfied with their role as medication distributors although they have traditionally been the ones to implement the treatments that doctors prescribe. This makes buy-in easier to make the changes necessary for a higher quality of care.
The act of distributing medication while a patient is in the hospital should not be part of a job description because it is the act of distributing drugs that assumes a nurse’s skill set that is inaccurate and ill-defined. As an alternative solution, the act of distributing medication after diagnosis should be the next step in the clinical treatment process that should be administered by doctors. Read More