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Medication errors constitute a real concern within healthcare due to their unfortunate consequences. Threats to patient safety and quality of care are made with medication errors.

Medication errors directly affect patients due to safety, costs, and potential long term consequences. The far reaching consequences for patients and their families is substantial, leading to increased morbidity and mortality.

Nevertheless, the ramifications economically from medication errors can impose a significant financial burden on the healthcare facility. The cost accompanying adverse events, legal liabilities, and prolonged hospital stays highlights the significance of effective preventative interventions.

Additionally, the moral distress posed upon the nurse that made the error can dramatically impact their life as well. Guilt and shame associated with medication errors should also be addressed.

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Globally, medication errors are a substantial concern that directs affects patients. A variety of factors can result in a medication errors including miscommunication, human error, distractions, fatigue, insufficient training, and increased workload. Medication administration encompasses nearly 40% of hospital practices and when looking at the statistics in the United States, one death per day and injury to 1.3 million patients annually is done through medication errors (Da Cunha Coelho et al., 2023).

It was found that a confidence interval of 95% with adherence to patient safety policies had a remarkable positive correlation with medication error reduction (Labrague, 2023). Additionally, higher adherence to safety protocols concluded in an increase in reporting patient adverse events, which could improve the patient outcome despite the error.

In another study, interventions of accredited technicians verifying prescriptions, dispensing technologies, and acknowledging look alike medications were implemented. The results found that implementing the interventions as hospital protocols reduced the overall rate of medication errors by nearly half. Furthermore, a 34% reduction in risk of prevented errors and a 68% reduction in the risk of unprevented errors occurred with the implementation of the safety protocols (Poole et al., 2021). Ultimately, implementation of effective safety protocols, such as appropriately trained staff and using technology, results in a reduction of medication errors.

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A core role by nurses in medication safety is to have provision of accurate medication information. Providing accurate medication information being administered to the patient can be an effective step for avoiding errors. This provision provides an opportunity for patients and families to question a medication, ultimately leading the nurse to do another check with the provider (Jeong & Park, 2022). This nurse-patient relationship is another precaution nurses can take since they are the last check before a medication reaches a patient.

Another crucial role nurses take to reduce medication errors is adhering to medication principles and patient checks. It is the nurses responsibility to check the dispensed medication against the prescribed order and ensure the appropriateness of administration (Jeong & Park, 2022). Checking for appropriateness of a medication is done by ensuring the patients information and health status, such as an allergy and lab results, matches the need for a specific medication. Abiding by these safety principles improves medication safety with the use of critical thinking.

Though there are policies in place to avoid medication errors, they still unfortunately can occur. With that said, a nurses role when errors occur is to be honest about the error to the patient. Sharing medication errors with patients can be daunting and embarrassing, however absolutely necessary. Ultimately, disclosing a medication error contributes to the enhancement of medication management safety (Jeong & Park, 2022).

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Nurses involvement in improving the risk of medication errors is substantial due to medication administration encompassing 40% of hospital operations (Da Cunha Coelho et al., 2023). The high prevalence of medication of administration poses an increased risk of an error occurrence.

With that said, nurses have substantial insight for opportunities for improvement due to their direct care with patients and involvement in hospital protocols. Nurses can help decrease medication errors by voicing their perspectives and experiences of medication administration in order to aid in the formation of effective protocols.

Nurses involvement can help improve the issue by addressing environmental barriers to safe medication administration, ensuring more in depth medication management training, and revising policies through their direct insight (Arkin et al., 2023).

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While nurses have a major responsibility in ensuring medication safety, there are several barriers to implement such safety measures. Some major barriers to safe medication administration are chaotic environments, heavy workloads, nurse competency, distractions, and fatigue (Arkin et al., 2023).

While in a perfect world safe medication protocols would be implemented, nurses are experiencing a variety of issues hindering their ability to participate in the reduction of medication errors. Nurse to patient ratios have dramatically increased due to the recent pandemic, making them more vulnerable to medication administrations.

While implementing safe medication protocols is crucial to the success of error reduction, more issues need to be addressed such as workload and interruptions.

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In order to further sustain nurses providing accurate medication information to their patients, nurses need the proper competency. While there are a copious amount of medications, having full knowledge can be challenging. However it is recommended that nurses use the resources provided in the medication administration record (MAR) in order to provide accurate information to their patients and open any dialogue for questioning an order. A patient's ability to question the appropriateness of an order can ultimately stop the nurses action of administration and find clarity on the order.

Improving nurses participation to adhere to protocols during medication administration involves looking at a deeper issue. Nurses encounter chaotic environments, heavy workloads, and distractions. These barriers ultimately impact the nurses ability to slow down and ensure policies are followed. A recommendation to improve nurse participation in these safety measures would be to decrease distractions in the workplace, such as small talk, during the medication administration practice.

Sharing medication errors with leadership and patients can be a daunting task. In order to promote nurse participation in reporting medication errors, it is recommended that nurse leadership cultivates a safe environment for nurses to be vulnerable. This may look like demonstrating grace during mistakes and providing constructive feedback, rather than an emotional reaction leading to shame.

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The second curricular concept of applying quality improvement methods in practice as it pertains to medication management has improved immensely. In order to improve quality of care, involving the patient in the medication administration process was highlighted. Involving the patient in the medication administration process can ultimately decrease medication errors. I also learned to use my resources in order to answer any questions I may have about a medication in order to competently discuss with a patient. This concept has prepared me to take a leadership role because it includes the ability to find an answer through resources independently in order to deliver quality care for patients.

The fifth outcome of evaluating the legal and ethical aspects of the role of nursing has also improved. As it pertains to medication errors, ensuring all protocols are followed during medication administration is crucial. This concept has prepared me to take a leadership role because I have gained the ability to evaluate policies and procedures, which can ultimately help me as a leader because policies will ensure I am implementing interventions in a legal and ethical manner. Evaluating the legal and aspects of nursing practices in terms of medication errors is crucial for a nurse leader because understanding the proper steps to take after an error can de-escalate a very serious situation.

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