Impact of Effective Leadership on Medication Errors in Healthcare Settings

Critical reflection Scenario-Based Essay 19076788
Leadership in Nursing
The essay brings about the discussion on the impact of the medication
errors on the safety of the patient. In the healthcare settings leadership style or
effective leadership, skills are vital for the effective functioning, which has
demonstrated through this essay. Leadership is a fundamental part of effective
nursing care and nurses recognized as leaders in patient care. Leadership skills
play a critical role in maintaining the productivity and quality care in nursing. Nurses
with leadership skills are change makers and considered significant and effective in
the healthcare because it provides innovation and the positive outcomes in relation
to the patient safety. The essay focuses on the significance of the application of the
effective leadership style to implement the plan of change from a paper-based
medication administration system to computerised medication administration
system in the hospital setting. Thus, essay also provides a detailed description and
analysis of the benefits of electronic medication system (McFadden, Stock &
Gowen III, 2015).
Medication administration system plays vital role towards patient safety
and long-term sustainability of the health of the individual by modernised patient
care and medication management. As medication, errors remain the most
frequent type of incidents in the healthcare setting, which affects the health of the
individual from the adverse effects. Reducing the occurrence of such errors will
lead to the quality care in the healthcare settings. The essay described about the
case of a 200-bed hospital, which reported some of the frequent clinical incidents;
past three years, which were analysed to be the impact of the medication errors
in the hospitals (Wahr & Merry, 2017). Implementation of the electronic
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Critical reflection Scenario-Based Essay 19076788
medication administration system (EMAS) enabled the healthcare or hospitals to
prescribe, supply, and administer the medication electronically. The benefits of
adopting modernise medication system consists of reduction in the medication
errors and its effects, less anxiety amongst the staff and improvement in the
quality of the care in hospitals by reducing variance in prescribing practice (Lim,
D’Arcy-Evans & Koning, 2018). Electronic Medication system when adopted
increases the legibility, as it becomes easy to read and track. Records are
effectively maintained and managed through the computerised medication
system. The most important reason behind the implementation of the electronic
medication system is the enhancement of the accessibility due to the record
maintenance. It enables an individual or the health care professionals to access
the system from any place or any computer at the required time (Bos-Touwen et
al., 2015).
Lewin’s model of change is a resourceful tool that enables to draft a plan
for the change in the healthcare setting to reduce the incidents. It is a three-step
model, which includes stages, such as unfreezing, changing, and, refreezing. The
first step of the model describes about setting of the foundation for change,
elimination of the unproductive practices, determining a positive response to the
change proposed in the improvement of the healthcare services. These models of
change are effective and significant as it helps the professionals to understand
the human behaviour, their emotions, and reactions to the treatment. The patients
in the healthcare often resist to the change, which becomes a major issue.
Therefore, the Lewin’s 3-step model, understands the patterns of resistance by
their patients. The stages of the model for the organisational change
management process can be described as follows (Manchester et al., 2014).
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Critical reflection Scenario-Based Essay 19076788
Unfreezing: The first step of the model relates to the identification of the
problems or difficulties in the healthcare, which are resolved later on. The
unfreezing stage discusses the increase or strengthening of the driving forces
and reducing the restraining forces. The forces that support the implementation of
change in the system are the driving forces, and which restrain the process are
restraining forces (Cummings, Bridgman & Brown, 2016).
Changing: The next is the moving or the changing stage of the model,
which describes about the situation when the change takes place through the
equalization of the forces. It means supporting the driving force to implement plan
of change for resolving the health issues (Downe, Byrom & Simpson, 2011).
Refreezing: The last stage of the refreezing of the change management
model describes the evaluation of the change implemented in the hospital. It is
done to evaluate the stability of the change and effectiveness of the practices
(Stanley, 2011).
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