The Importance Of Medication Errors In Nursing

The most common breach of medication administration is medication errors. This is why it is important to have a culture and environment of safety. Administration of medications is a basic activity in nursing practice. Nurses therefore must be knowledgeable about specific drugs and their administration, patient response, drug interactions, patient allergies, and related resources. Safety and prevention of medication errors are essential” (Kee 2015). A culture and environment of safety for medication administration should be a clutter free environment. “As nurses, we should not have other multiple medications out at one time; so we will not mistake one medication with another and/or give a wrong medication to a wrong patient. In addition, there shouldn’t be any distractions in medication room or area. According to Flynn (2016), four main sources of interruptions were identified as: (1) patient-related, (2) phone calls, (3)
verbal (face-to-face interaction), and (4) unavailability of resources. The majority of phone calls and verbal (face-to-face) interruptions were related to patient care activities including requests from patients, unit personnel, and other care providers. Conversations and loud noises could distract the nurse, causing a medication error. Therefore nurses should avoid social interaction in the medication room and delegate or defer tasks when appropriate to maintain a concentrated focus on medication administration.
During medication administration, it is empirical that nurses follow the eight rights of medication administration; which include: right medication, right dose, right patient, route, time, documentation, reason and response. And also adhere to the nurses’ six rights, which include: the right to a complete and clear order; the right to have the correct drug, route (form), and dose dispensed; the right to have access to information; the right to have policies to guide safe medication administration; the right to administer medications safely and to identify problems in the system; the right to stop, think, and be vigilant when administering medication (Kee, 2015).
Some factors that can lead to errors in medication administration documentation are forgetting to document that the medication was given, documenting before giving the medication, and not having an updated MAR.
When a nurse forgets to document on a medication that was given it is looked at as though this was not given. Consequently, the oncoming nurse will notice and give the medication, which could lead to toxicity or even death. We need to make sure that the medication that are being given are documented so that we know and the nurses after us know that the patient received this medication. Another factor that can lead to medication errors in documentation is documenting before giving a medication. This could cause you to think you have already given the medication when you have not given it. Thus it is important to document right after medication has been administered. Lastly, not having an updated MAR can cause medication errors. For example, the patient have allergy that is not list on the MAR or new medication order not written in the
MAR.
Kee stated that “medication errors may be defined as ‘any preventable event that may cause or lead to inappropriate medication use or harm to a patient’ (2015). Medication errors can be prevented if nurses follow the eight rights of medication administration, block out distraction, communication, have a check systems in place, and ask patient if they have any allergies before administering medications. Nurses should ensure to check right patient by using at last two form of identification by asking them to state their name and date of birth, however; if they are not able to do so we can look in the MAR and check against their wristband. Errors can also be prevented by checking and removing expired medications, double check all medications match the MAR and the patient’s name.