Medical Errors Course 2022

Running head: MEDICAL ERRORS
Medication errors
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MEDICATION ERROS 2
The National Coordinating Council for Medication Error Reporting and Prevention define
medication errors as preventable actions which may result to incorrect use of medication or even
harm of the patients according to Delaney, (2018). Even though people agree that drugs can
better their lives, when these drugs are wrongly administered they can lead to serious
complication of the consumer. It is true that an error can erupt at any point of medication. These
errors have been prevalent in the past years and it is important to find how to manage them at
any stage of medication. There are several causes of medication errors and all these have their
side effects. The goal of this assignment is to identify and discuss main causes and effects of
medication errors in the lives of patients and health care providers. Besides that, the assignment
will the recommended strategies to minimize the errors based on the Medication Safety
Standards. When it comes to the criteria of minimizing medication errors, the assignment will
elaborate on documentation of patient information and medication management process.
Some of the most common causes of medication errors include the following:
a. Inadequate flow of the necessary information during treatment.
During medication stage, Bolandianbafghi et al, (2017) said that flow of information is
crucial in every healthcare. Flow of information is mostly when medication process is
taking within different health care service locations. However, there are cases where a
patient can be transferred from one health service to another but the healthcare
information from the previous hospital do not accompany him or her. Some of the
consequences that arises when a patient is discharged from one hospital to another
without clear flow of the medication information include poor coordination of the
medication issues, inappropriate flow of test results and poor prescription decisions.

MEDICATION ERROS 3
b. Absence of proper communication between health workers handling the same patient is
the same hospital.
During the treatment process, Hayes, Jackson, Davidson, & Power, (2015) argued that
the health workers who handle patients at different levels include nurses, physicians any
other health care team member. However, it is important to note that communication
whether written or oral is important for these people to gains that the patient get the right
medication. In situation where there is a communication breakdown at any point, the
possibility of medication errors is very high.
c. Technical errors
Medication errors can also be caused by the failure of machines around the health care
system. For instance, World Health Organization. (2016) said that the instruments that
nurses use can fail, medication devices can break down among other machines, thus
resulting to medication errors of the patient.
d. Poor workflow and staffing patterns
Staffing do not necessarily lead to medication errors, however, Honey, Bray, Gomez &
Condren,(2015) said that the poor staffing can place nurses in a situation they are more
likely to commit medication errors. For instance, when a single nurse is attending to
fifteen patients at a go and all have severe complications. Such situation may make the
nurse too tired to deliver his or her duties appropriately thus resulting to medication
errors to one or more patients.
e. Human related problems
These are challenges brought by human ignorance. The nursing field have set standards
and policies that nurses should follow while delivering their services to the patients.