Medication Administration: Causes and Interventions

Running head: MEDICATION ADMINISTRATION 1
Medication administration
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MEDICATION ADMINISTRATION
Error related to medication is a cause of concern within the medical fraternity. A research
based study conducted by Härkänen, Blignaut, and Vehviläinen-Julkunen (2018), worked on
exploring the possible causes that lead to possible medicinal errors. The study can further
propagate a clear idea about enhancing the quality of nursing practises for better patient health
outcome. The essay thus works on examining the provided research articles that is centred
around the issues of medication error and how it can be addressed for better results. The essay
carries out critical comparison between the two research papers while bringing out their actual
validity.
The first paper concentrates on the focus group discussion of the registered nurses;
coupled with the challenges in the process of medicine administration. The research in the
current context makes use of focus group related interview among a sample size of 20 nurses.
The nurses were interviewed within their professional settings. The analysis conducted in the
mentioned scenario was based on inductive content analysis. The results exhibited the fact that
the nurses were subjected to series of challenges during the course of medication. The challenges
found through the course of research was further segregated into themes for better understanding
of the research findings. Thus, it can be conclusively stated the process of medication
administration was subjected to flaws and even the registered nurses described many internal and
external challenges that can be related to medication administration. The research in the current
context drew the conclusion that nurses are responsible for the work related performance that is
inclusive of patient safety. The aspect of patient safety is of prime concern that can be
maintained through implementation of effective collaboration, while providing proper education
to the targeted population in regards to medication administration

MEDICATION ADMINISTRATION
The second research article is seen to focus on the wrong drug preparation for patients
making use of feeding tubes. Combined intervention programs are often termed as effective tools
that can be implemented for ensuring limited medication preparation errors. However, till date
there has been limited research in the mentioned field and even if tested, computerized
physicians were used. Thus, the prime objective of the mentioned research paper was to design
and evaluate an intervention based program tailored as per the healthcare settings without the
preference of such pre-determined conditions. The research makes use of methodological
intervention of pre or post-operative ICU patients of specific wards. The results evaluated the
fact that drug preparation is an important aspect that works on maintaining the health of the
individuals. The result provided a clear idea that intervention program is highly significant in
reducing the error related to medicine crushing. Hence, it can be concluded, the implementation
of systematic interventional program can work on reducing the rate of wrongly prepared solid
preoral drugs. The result additionally provided a clear idea to the fact effective measures can be
undertaken for ensuring better health practises among the patients
Considering the first research conducted by Härkänen, Blignaut, and Vehviläinen-
Julkunen (2018), the researcher adopted qualitative study design where they conducted an
interview of 20 registered nurses; coupled with the challenges in the process of medication
administration. The internal validity of the study depends on certain factors such as Attrition, a
random section of the participants and confounding factors (Belin et al., 2016). Considering the
internal validity of the study, the study randomly selects registered nurses from the two wards of
the hospital. While it has the minimum selection, it randomly selects registered nurse from each
ward which further indicates internal validation of the study. However, Connelly (2016),
highlighted that the presence of the confounding factors may impact the internal validity of the