5 MEDICATION ERRORS MEDICATION ERRORS MEDICATION ERRORS Name Institutional affiliation

Running head: MEDICATION ERRORS
MEDICATION ERRORS
Name
Institutional affiliation

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MEDICATION ERRORS
Introduction
Humans are prone to errors, and those in healthcare are not an exception. Many of the
errors occur due to the ordinary course of cognitive and behavioral adaptations, which
controls personal conduct. One of the central roles of the nurses in a hospital is the
following and execution of orders in a hospital. Many errors occur in the implementation
of these orders. Another source of errors in lack of skills, knowledge, and experience in
the medical field. Students and incompetent nurses are prone to committing mistakes.
Mistakes in the medical field compromise the safety of the patients, increases the cost
of their treatment, can cause other health problems or even death (Makary et al., 2016).
Although all the other personnel in the hospital is prone to committing errors, the nurses
commit most of these mistakes (Bogner, 2018). That is because they spend most of
their time in the hospital, and they are also responsible for the execution of most of the
orders. It is, therefore, imperative to address the issue of errors in the health industry
and also focuses on the measures to reduce the mistakes. This paper will focus on the
different types of errors committed in the medical field, the causes, effects, and ways of
reducing medical errors, according to the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality
in Health Care.
Common medical errors
Administration of medicine is one of the critical responsibilities of the nurses. The
primary role of the nurses is to prepare and administer drugs to patients in the correct
doses. Before the medicine reaches the patient, it goes through several steps that
involve prescription, preparation, dispensing, administration, and monitoring of the drug
effects in a patient. The nurse is the last person in the chain who interacts with the
patient and administers the drugs to patients. The nurses can detect errors committed
by other medical personnel and prevent the harm that comes with the wrong medication
(Keers et al., 2013).
Errors can occur due to inability to follow orders. The doctor writes the medication and
the dose to be administered to each patient. The nurse is expected to follow these
orders strictly to ensure the administration of the right medicine in the correct dosages
and to the right patient. Nurses should not follow orders blindly, and they are expected
to identify any mistakes in the prescription of the drugs. In many hospitals, a single
nurse is responsible for taking care of many patients. Errors may occur during the
preparation of the drugs where the wrong dose is prepared. One of the fatal mistakes
done in the preparation and administration of medicines is an overdose. Some drugs
have narrow therapeutic index and a slight overdose can result in very serious health
effects on the patient and even death. Some medications like digoxin require stringent
monitoring because of its high potential to cause toxicity in the patient (NMC, 2015).