Medication Error: Causes, Types, and Effects

This report aims to explore the causes, types, and effects of medication errors. The methodology that the investigators used to collect data is the issuance of questionnaires to five hundred patients in Melbourne. The participants had the task of disclosing information on the types, effects, and causes of medication errors in Australian hospitals. 60% of the participants stated that mistakes were due to workload and unfavorable shift hours in the health facilities. The remaining 40% attributed the errors to the inexperience of individual nurses and possible conditions. Therefore, the causes of the clinical errors are workload, shift hours, the ignorance of caregivers, and underlying work conditions.

Running head: MEDICATION ERROR 1
Medication Error
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation

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Executive Summary
This report aims to explore the causes, types, and effects of medication errors. The
methodology that the investigators used to collect data is the issuance of questionnaires to five
hundred patients in Melbourne. The participants had the task of disclosing information on the
types, effects, and causes of medication errors in Australian hospitals. 60% of the participants
stated that mistakes were due to workload and unfavorable shift hours in the health facilities. The
remaining 40% attributed the errors to the inexperience of individual nurses and possible
conditions. Therefore, the causes of the clinical errors are workload, shift hours, the ignorance of
caregivers, and underlying work conditions.
There are eight types of medication errors which include prescription, omission, and
wrong timing of dosage. Improper dosing, wrong dosage, and improper technique of
administration are the other kinds of clinical mistakes. The other two errors occur due to the
fragmented relationship between the caregivers and the wrong preparation of drugs. Medication
errors have an undesirable effect on the patient, caregiver, and the health facility. The errors
endanger the health of the patients as severe mistakes can lead to the death of patients. The
mistakes destroy the reputation of caregivers and lead to their sacking by the hospital
administration. Clinical errors destroy the public image of the hospital and can lead to its closure
by the government. The health facilities should employ more employees to reduce the workload
on caregivers. The hospital administration should not allow an inexperienced nurse to write
prescriptions as a method of reducing medication mistakes. The government should install
equipment that detects and correct medical errors. In conclusion, the implementation of the
above recommendations can eliminate clinical errors and improve the quality of medical
treatment.

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Introduction
A medication mistake is a preventable occurrence that causes the inappropriate use of
medication by the patient (Roughead, Semple, & Rosenfeld, 2016). Caregivers are responsible
for a majority of the mistakes; however, the hospital system and the government are also
responsible for the errors. The mistakes occur during events like prescription, administration, and
intake of drugs. Australian hospitals have been registering less than five percent of errors due to
the advanced health care system in the country (Hayes, Jackson, Davidson, & Power, 2015).
Nurses commit errors when deciding on the appropriate administration route for various drugs.
The fragmented relationship between caregivers in different departments also leads to clinical
mistakes. The prescription of a wrong dosage and inaccurate intervals of drug intake can be
detrimental to the health of patients.
The long working hours overstretch caregivers hence making them vulnerable to
mistakes. Clinical errors are rampant during the dayshifts due in no small number of patients that
visit the hospital during those periods. Inexperienced nurses also commit more mistakes than
their experienced counterparts. Latent conditions such as distractions make nurses to make
mistakes during prescription. This report will explore the causes, types, and effects of medication
errors. The write-up will also suggest recommendations to eliminate the errors.
Literature Review
Methodology
Five hundred patients took part in the medication error study. The patients were to fill
questionnaires about the types of medication mistakes and the causes of those errors.
Additionally, the search clients were also to state the effects of the errors and possible solutions.

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The researchers vowed not to disclose the identity of the patients. The investigators analyzed the
data by using SPSS.
Discussion
Causes of Medication Errors
Workload, shift hours, and Time of Admission are prime determinants of medication
errors. Nurses who work for long hours in the health facilities make numerous mistakes than
those that stay on duty for a few hours (Clendon, & Gibbons, 2015). Therefore, wards that have a
large number of patients are prone to errors than wards with few clients. Clinical mistakes are
numerous during the day than in evening and night shifts (Rhéaume, & Mullen, 2018). The
number of prescriptions at daytime is higher than those written during the other shift hours.
Additionally, patients visit health facilities at noontime than at any other time during the day;
hence, a high number of mistakes at that time. Nurses who are overworked are vulnerable to
mistakes since they are exhausted due to their busy schedules. Therefore, the number of
prescriptions and patients are the primary determinants of clinical mistakes. A high number of
clients and prescriptions elevate the number of medication errors.
The medical experience of staff members also determines the occurrence of clinical
mistakes. Recent studies have indicated that inexperienced caregivers are prone to medication
errors than their experienced counterparts (Cloete, 2015). However, specific research proposals
do not link the drug mistakes to the level of physician experience. A majority of hospitals
encounter numerous errors due to the recruitment of new members of staff due to the
inexperience of the recruits. Therefore, fresh nursing graduates register more errors that the
nurses who have been practicing for an extended time. The lack of drug knowledge also makes
nurses commit medical mistakes (Cabilan, Eley, Hughes, & Sinnott, 2016). Specific caregivers

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lack the knowledge of contraindications and side-effects of the drug; hence leading to mistakes.
The inability of a caregiver to distinguish closely related drugs lead to confusion and wrong
dosage.
Latent conditions also lead to drug errors in a majority of health facilities. System failures
during drug administration also cause the medical mistakes. Distractions during prescription and
drug administration make nurses to prescribe the wrong dosage to the patients (Sahay,
Hutchinson, & East, 2015). Nurses encounter distractions when dispensing, prescribing, and
administering drugs. A distracted nurse can read diazepam instead of diltiazem. Such a caregiver
goes on to administer diazepam which has sedative effects on the patient. Certain health facilities
lack an appropriate machine that checks for medication errors; hence, such hospitals encounter a
high number of the mistakes. The invention of complicated medical devices can confuse the
caregivers and lead them into errors (Wahr, & Merry, 2017). Equipment with poor designs is
misleading and cause mistakes in the administration of drugs at health facilities. Improper
labeling of drug bottles also causes dosage errors in hospitals.
Types of Medication Errors
Omission errors are the most common mistakes at health facilities according to the
participants who filled out the questionnaires. The mistakes occur when caregivers fail to wholly
or partially administer dosage (Morley et al., 2016). The error makes patients to skip medication
and risk their health in the process. Distractions can cause the omission mistakes.
Prescription errors occur when the drug selection does not suit the condition of the
patient. The wrong route of drug administration is also a prescription mistake whereby the doctor
uses intravenous injection instead of intramuscular (Elliott, Lee, Beanland, Vakil, & Goeman,
2016). Specific caregivers also issue the wrong dosage quantities to patients.

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The wrong timing of dosage is a rare but critical medication error that specific nurses
commit during their line of duty. The issuance of medication outside the particular intervals of
intakes is dangerous to the patient (Gordon, Hudson, Plenderleith, Fisher, & Craft, 2017). An
example is when a nurse instructs the patient to take a particular medication three times instead
of twice in the day.
Improper dosing mistakes are common with inexperienced nurses. The error can occur
when the nurse prescribe an excessive dosage than the right amount (Borrott et al., 2017). Nurses
who prescribe fewer drugs than standard dosage are also guilty of improper dosage. Workload
and inexperience can make a caregiver to make the dosing error.
Improper techniques of drug administration occur due to underlying conditions such as
lack of a system that checks clinical errors at various health facilities. An example is when a
nurse administers a drug orally instead of intramuscular injections (Fahimi, Forough,
Taghikhani, & Saliminejad, 2015). Intramuscular injections make the drug to reach the target
cells faster than oral medication.
Errors also occur due to a fragmented relationship between caregivers in different
departments of the hospital. The breakdown in communication between the care providers
interferes with the process of medication (Sassoli, & Day, 2017). The nurse can prescribe drugs
to the patient but fail to indicate the intervals of medication intake. Therefore, the pharmacist can
have difficulties when issuing the prescribed medications to the patient.
Mistakes also happen due to the issuance of the wrong dosage to the patient. Nurses can
prescribe the correct dosage but fail to administer the drugs according to the initial information
(Parry, Barriball, & While, 2015). Therefore, nurses should be keen when administering
medications after prescription.

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The stage of drug preparation is a typical venue for medication errors. The nurse can
incorrectly formulate medication; hence leading to a severe effect on the patient (Cabilan,
Hughes, & Shannon, 2017). An example occurs when a care provider over-dilutes a drug making
it lose its healing effects. Under-dilution of drugs can make them toxic to the patients.
Effects of Medication errors
Medication errors have a negative impact on the patient, caregivers, and the health
facility. A drug mistake can worsen the symptoms of a patient’s disease (Lertxundi et al., 2017).
Additionally, an error can add more conditions to the patient. Severe medication mistakes can
lead to coma or even death of the patient. The reputation of caregivers who commit an error goes
down and risk losing their jobs. The errors also tarnish the image of a health facility; hence
risking closure by the government.
Results
Out of the five hundred participants, three hundred individuals (60%) stated that errors
were due to workload and unfavorable shift hours at the health facilities. One hundred and forty-
nine patients (29.8%) said that medical mistakes are as a result of latent conditions in the
hospitals. Fifty-one participants (10.2%) associated medical errors with a lack of experience
among caregivers. One hundred and twenty-three patients (24.6%) said that omission errors are
the most rampant in health facilities. Two hundred and four participants (40.8%) admitted that
most caregivers make mistakes in the stage of drug administration. The remaining 34.6% noted
other types of mistakes such as the wrong dosage. A majority of participants stated that medical
errors endanger the life of patients. Others attributed the increase in mortality rates in hospitals to
medication mistakes. More than fifty percent of the participants recommended that resolving the
three significant causes can eliminate the medical errors.

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Recommendations
Medication errors have severe effects on the patient, nurse, and hospitals; hence the
government and health stakeholders should implement measures to eliminate the mistakes. The
national administration should employ more caregivers to reduce the workload of the nurses. A
reduction in the number of working hours can reduce the number of prescription errors as nurses
remain active during their line of duty. The health facilities should also create favorable shift
hours for the health professionals. Additionally, the facility administration should deploy more
workers to the day shift than the evening and night shifts. The hospital should allow experienced
nurses to write prescriptions to minimize the number of errors.
The hospital administration should also limit the distractions at the medication
environment. The wards should strictly contain the patients, nurses, and the family of the clients.
Additionally, music and other possible sources of noise should not exist within the hospital
premises. The manufacturers of different drugs should label the bottle correctly to eliminate
incidences of confusion and misreading of medication containers. The government should install
appropriate machines that can detect and correct medication errors in health facilities. The above
recommendations can assist in eliminating medication errors.
Conclusion
Medication errors are occurrences that endanger the well-being of the patients. The heavy
caregiver's workload leads to exhaustion and clinical mistakes. Inexperienced nurses commit
more errors that the experienced professionals. Latent conditions such as distractions at the
hospital also make nurses to make prescription errors. The medical mistakes include prescription,
omission, and wrong dosage errors. Other clinical errors occur due to a fragmented relationship
between caregivers in different segments of the hospital. Severe medication errors can lead to the

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death of patients. Caregivers who are prone to mistakes risk losing their jobs and tarnishing their
reputations. The government can close down a hospital that registers numerous errors. Employ
more nurses to reduce the heavy workload. The hospital should allow experienced nurses to
write prescriptions. The government should install error-checking machines in hospitals to
minimize the mistakes.

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