Right-Time Medication Reflection

As previously mentioned, right-time medication administration is important to prevent patient harm. Medications are considered late when they are delivered beyond 30 minutes of the scheduled time or depending on the hospital policy. Certain medications, such as antibiotics and Parkinson disease drugs, follow strict schedules to provide and maintain therapeutic blood levels. In particular, antibiotics should be administered on time to effectively prevent bacterial resistance and inhibit bacterial growth. In relation to my situation, I could have potentially altered patient B’s health since I was unable to deliver the antibiotics on time due to sudden unfortunate events and interruptions. Fortunately, my nurse was able to give the medications.
For instance, in addition to the feeding tube incident, the preparation and administration of the medications required more time and I did not allocate enough time for these processes. The medications needed to be crushed, mixed with the solution, and delivered slowly through the feeding tube. Also, because the nurse conversed with me during the preparation, it led to further delays such that I had to pause what I was doing when I gave my response. This behaviour or value of mine is shaped by my family because I was always taught to be respectful and give my full attention when people converse with me. As for the wrong-time errors associated with patient B, the contributing factors include the delays that occurred with patient A, pharmacy-related issues, and limited drug knowledge. Since one of the patient’s drug was not on the unit, the nurse had to place an order. Simply, the order placement, drug transport, and medication preparation would result in late administration. Also, my lack of knowledge regarding drugs may be associated with inadequate prioritizing skills, such that I did not take into account that some medications are more crucial than others, to be delivered at the specified
That being said, I need to learn and develop strategies to tackle similar situations in the future. These strategies include collaboration, adequate knowledge, and interventions to prevent distractions. In general, collaboration is an important factor in reducing medication errors, but primarily, timely and effective collaboration with the pharmacy can prevent late deliveries. Also, enhancing one’s knowledge regarding drugs aid in prioritizing one’s tasks. Since nurses are unable to deliver all of their patients’ medications at that specific time, nurses need effective judgement and prioritizing skills, such that crucial medications are administered before other medications. Also, by knowing how the drug is to be prepared and administered, nurses should allocate enough time for these processes. To decrease time-related medication errors from distractions, Pape (2013) proposes the use of the “no interruption zone” (pg. 219) when preparing medications, which is marked on the floor with tape. In addition, nurses may wear a sash during medication preparation and administration to warn individuals not to interrupt the healthcare provider during the process. Furthermore, when nurses are disturbed by other individuals, they should verbally inform them to stop their distracting acts. For