Healthcare Assignment: Analysis of Medication Errors in Australia

This healthcare assignment delves into the critical issue of medication errors within the Australian healthcare system. The paper explores the significance of critical thinking, decision-making, and problem-solving skills for healthcare professionals in mitigating such errors. It identifies medication errors as a significant healthcare condition, discussing their causes, types, and impact on patient safety. The assignment outlines learning objectives, goals for reducing medication errors, and evidence-based strategies such as medication reconciliation, double-checking procedures, and the use of technology to enhance patient safety. The report emphasizes the importance of healthcare professionals being aware of strategies that can reduce risks of complications and implement abilities to reduce the chances of medication errors in the future.

Running head: HEALTHCARE ASSIGNMENT
HEALTHCARE ASSIGNMENT
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author note

1HEALTHCARE ASSIGNMENT
Introduction
Critical thinking, decision making and problem solving are the aspects that helps to
analyze the attributes that could make healthcare processed effective and of high quality (Cloete,
2016). There are multiple situations in nursing profession that requires the professionals to be
active and aware of their surroundings so that they could use their problem solving skills to
identify critical complications. Then depending upon the complexity of the condition, the nursing
professionals or healthcare professionals use their abilities to overcome the critical health
complications of patients (Flannery et al., 2016). There are multiple aspects that is included in
the problem solving related personal attribute such as the active listening ability, creativity,
communication and other aspects and analysis and active listening abilities due to which
majority of the patients understand the effectiveness of the care process. Similarly critical
thinking and critical reasoning abilities are also termed as aspects that help the nursing
professionals to understand the importance of care process (Latimer et al., 2017). Further in the
process they should be able to understand that thorugh these processes including patient
assessment, diagnosis, planning, evaluation and evaluation are the steps that helps the
professionals to understand the effectiveness of the care process (Sarfati et al., 2019).
The primary aim of this paper is to identify one such critical healthcare condition in the
healthcare facilities such as medication error and then develop a plan or proposal for the decision
making and problem solving in relation to this selected health care issue. This paper further
would describe problem solving and critical thinking abilities and then with the help of these
would identify the reason of medication error as the critical condition. Further, with the
development of learning objectives, the goals in this healthcare complication would be discussed.

2HEALTHCARE ASSIGNMENT
Finally, with the discussion of the latest and current protocol of the patient guidelines, the patient
would be asked to develop critical conditions so that they could acquire the latest research-based
evidences.
Problem solving and critical thinking in nursing
Problem solving is an important attribute of an individual that help them to understand
the importance of healthcare process and then through the help of their effective decision making
abilities, they overcome critical healthcare conditions in the process. as per Cloete (2016), the
problem solving skill or attribute is comprising of six guided steps such as the identification of
the problem, analyzing the proper an effective solutions, evaluating the chances of alternative
options and then deciding or finalizing one solution to overcome the critical condition and
finally, implementing the solution to the critical condition, so that they could overcome the
critical condition effectively (Karimi et al., 2016). Therefore, the problem solving ability is a
systematic and critical aspect that would help the professionals to be effective for the severity of
problems that are affecting the process.
However, to determine the severity of the critical condition and then prioritize them to
react upon, is achieved through the application of critical thinking and the patient should be
provided with effective care in such condition so that the critical thinking abilities of the nursing
professionals could help them. As per Karimi et al. (2019), critical thinking abilities are few of
the skills of the nursing professionals that is developed through their traits and then it could help
them to overcome their critical health conditions. Further, critical thinking also help them to
understand the safer nursing practices that would help them to develop quality of care and

3HEALTHCARE ASSIGNMENT
promote systematic and logistic manner of care process for the development of effective care
process (Cloete, 2016).
Medication error and its significance in Australian healthcare
As per the World Health Organisation (2019) mentions medication error as the
complication due to which the patients are provided with wrong medication or the wrong dosage
of medication and affects their effective care. These events are preventable situations as it occurs
due to the dosage calculation, or medication administration of the nursing professionals that are
assigned to provide the patient with critical care. These are the healthcare conditions that arise
due to the professional inability of the nursing professionals and/or due to their inability to
perform effective medication administration or labeling, packaging, dispensing distributing and
finally patient administering. Further, they also lack to provide the patient with patient education
and affect their ability to monitor or use these guidelines to help the patient. In this critical age of
globalization, there are multiple drives and programs that has been developed by the world
health organisation and the Australian healthcare system so that the patients could be provided
with 50% less or reduced risk of critical health complications. The medication error that costs the
world by US$42 billion annually requires the attention of the healthcare facilities so that the rate
of such critical condition could be reduced. As per Ogunleye et al. (2016), the rate of medication
error is Australia is between 2% to 3% of the total Australian population admission in the
healthcare facilities and as per this data, more than 230000 hospital admissions occur due to the
complication of hospital administration (Fanning, Jones & Manias, 2016). These medication
error related complication costs the Australian healthcare system by $1.2 billion AUD and these
costs could be prevented with critical thinking and problem solving related aspects. Therefore, it
is important to develop critical thinking abilities and problem solving skills in the nursing

4HEALTHCARE ASSIGNMENT
professionals so that they could overcome the critical conditions of the patients and then
implement abilities to reduce the chances of medication error in future (Karimi et al., 2018).
Learning objectives of this project
As per Miladinia et al. (2016), it was observed that majority of the health complications,
that arise in the healthcare system and that are associated with the medication error related
process should be provided with effective care so that the patient could understand the
importance of it and could support the nursing professional to reduce its occurrence. Majority of
the critical health condition mentioned that the medication error related complication arises due
to the human factor or other aspects depending upon which the medications are provided to the
patients and hence, it is important that the objectives for the critical thinking process should be
inclusive of aspects that could help them to overcome the critical conditions and then through the
help of the strategies could reduce the rate of this complication in the care system (Miladinia et
al., 2016). This is the reason; this would be included in this proposed care plan and requires the
healthcare professionals to be aware of the aspects that could reduce their risk of complications.
Goals to reduce the number of medication error
As per Cloete (2016), while developing this strategic and preventive measures in the care
process the nursing professionals should include several strategies and preventative measures so
that the patients involved in the healthcare process could be protected from the adverse
conditions effectively. Therefore, there are aspects that should be included in the care process
and should be included in the strategic care management so that patients and their increased risk
of complications could be removed. (Fanning, Jones & Manias, 2016). The goals for preventing
medication errors and developing this paper would be:

5HEALTHCARE ASSIGNMENT
 To reduce the risk of medication error so that the patients could be provided with
lowered risk of healthcare situation and the rate of money which is wasted due to
the increased complication of medication error system could be re- used in the
care process of that patient effectively.
 Another goal would be to understand the correct medication administration route
for the patient and then implement it for the effectiveness of the care process.
 To make sure that the healthcare professionals double check their processes so
that if any chance of complication could be reduced and the patient could be
provided with accurate and documented nursing professionals (Fanning, Jones &
Manias, 2016).
Medication error and all the aspects involved in it
There are multiple aspects of medication error that occurs in the patient care and could
affect the patient by increasing the complication of patient condition (Flannery & Parli, 2016).
As per Fanning, Jones and Manias (2016), medication error is the critical condition that has the
ability of providing the patients or creating a complication that could lead to potential harm.
Therefore, depending upon the type of error such as administration error, dosage calculation or
dose formulation group and improper monitoring of medication administration system, the
patients are unable to get aspects that could help them to overcome their medication error system
(Miladinia et al., 2016). While discussing the medication error and its complications, it should be
mentioned that there are six types of medication error that affects the patient and his/her
associated health complications such as error in analyzing the medication as well as critical
complications in the writing of the prescription, another complication that could be encountered
in the care process for patients are dispensing or formulating the dosage of medication due to

6HEALTHCARE ASSIGNMENT
which majority of the patients undergo this critical health complication (Ogunleye et al., 2016).
Therefore, these are the reasons due to which either the dosage of medication is altered or the
patient is unable to understand the correct medication due to complication in the manufacturing
or complications in the system (Rishoej et al., 2017.
Evidences collected from research articles
There are multiple aspects that should be implemented while undergoing the strategies to
overcome the critical health conditions. These strategies and interventions to control medication
error have been implemented by the researchers so that the effectiveness of it helps to understand
the complication of care process. As per Rishoej et al. (2017), one of the critical intervention to
reduce the rate of medication administration that have been implemented throughout the world is
developing reconciliation process for the healthcare facilities that has the tendency to develop
critical health condition. As per Cloete et al. (2015), while changing the ward or healthcare
organisation of the patients, it should be mentioned that it develops abilities so that the patient
could be provided with critical and effective care process. it requires the patients to be provided
with medication though correct route, correct time and correct dosage so that the patient could be
provided with effective and critical care and should be included in the strategies to overcome the
critical thinking abilities (Olaniyan et al., 2015). Another medication error related condition that
requires effective management and critical thinking ability so that patient medication
administration could become error free. This aspect is double or triple checking the medication
dosage and formulations prior to patient administration so that they could overcome the critical
healthcare conditions and they could be provided with accurate dosage by the care professionals
(Sarfati et al., 2019). As per Farzi et al. (2016), it is estimated that the healthcare professionals
implemented effective care so that they could overcome the critical thinking abilities and hence,

7HEALTHCARE ASSIGNMENT
they should be provided with effective care so that they could overcome their critical risk of
suffering from medication error. Hence, inn such condition, the double check and related aspects
would help the patient to understand the importance of these processes and they would be able to
understand and implement these processes for their future healthcare services (Karimi et al.,
2018). There is another process that could be used to overcome the critical complications of
medication error and it is dictating or announcing the dosage calculation and medication
administration process in the ward of hospitals so that they could understand the importance of it
and the chances of medication error in the dosage calculation or dosage formulation could be
removed (Olaniyan et al., 2015). Therefore, through the help of recent studies and research
findings it is evident that application and development of several strategies that could help the
nursing professionals to overcome the medication error related complication and hence these are
the evidences that could be implemented in the care process for effective development of care
process (Karimi et al., 2018).
Outline of the proposed goals and plans of the project
While developing the goals and objectives of the critical complication of the patients, it
should be mentioned that these goals should be implemented on organizational basis and then
depending upon the success of these interventions, should be implemented on the healthcare
management system (Karimi et al., 2018). In this aspect, the goals and plans of the project that
would be included in the critical processes of healthcare and all the nursing professional and
healthcare professionals would be provided with a detailed educational so that these
professionals could understand the implication of it (Latimer et al., 2017). As per Sarfati et al.
(2019) educational intervention would help the professionals to be aware of these complications
and they would be able to understand it as an emergency situation and would implement personal

8HEALTHCARE ASSIGNMENT
level strategies to overcome critical healthcare complications. Further, it will also help the
hospital authority to grant funding from its higher authority as they would be able to understand
this serious condition and then act on it to develop effective abilities to prevent or control such
medication error from occurring in the healthcare service (Mohanty, 2016). After education or
awareness, the proposed plan of medication error would be implemented in the organisation and
all the strategies that could help to prevent medication error would be implemented in the care
process. Therefore, these are the strategies that would be implemented while outlining and
implementing proposed goals and plans for the objectives (Wolf et al., 2015).
Criteria for further resolution and evaluation
As per Nanji et al. (2016), the criteria, depending upon which these complications would
be developed and discussed are improvement in the patient condition, effective reduction in the
medication error rates and reduction of risk factors of patients that could arise due to the health
complication of the patients and medication errors. Besides these, as mentioned in the
Almanasreh, Moles and Chen (2016), all the goals and objectives that have been developed
would be analyzed for its completion. Further, the nursing and physicians that are not able to
overcome their critical complication would be asked to develop aspects so that they could
overcome their critical conditions (Gorgich et al., 2016). Hence, it is estimated that application of
these aspects would help the nursing professionals to overcome their critical conditions
associated with medication error.
Conclusion
While concluding this paper, it could be mentioned that medication error is an adverse
condition, in which due to the lack of knowledge about medication administration, nursing

9HEALTHCARE ASSIGNMENT
professionals are not aware to follow the critical health conditions. In such condition, it is
important that the professionals use their critical thinking abilities and their problem solving
skills so that they could overcome the critical aspects of medication error and practice processes
that could help the patient by reducing their risk of health complications. Further, this paper also
included the strategies and interventions that the nursing professionals could implement that
would help them to overcome their critical healthy complications. Finally, through evaluation
and analysis of the above-mentioned strategies, this paper provides a holistic stand on the health
complication of medication error and analyses every aspect of it for the betterment of the patients
associated with it.

10HEALTHCARE ASSIGNMENT
References
Almanasreh, E., Moles, R., & Chen, T. F. (2016). The medication reconciliation process and
classification of discrepancies: a systematic review. British journal of clinical
pharmacology, 82(3), 645-658.
Cloete, L. (2015). Reducing medication errors in nursing practice. Cancer Nursing
Practice, 14(1).
Fanning, L., Jones, N., & Manias, E. (2016). Impact of automated dispensing cabinets on
medication selection and preparation error rates in an emergency department: a
prospective and direct observational before‐and‐after study. Journal of evaluation in
clinical practice, 22(2), 156-163.
Farzi, S., Farzi, S., Alimohammadi, N., & Moladoost, A. (2016). Medication errors by the
intensive care units' nurses and the Preventive Strategies. Anesthesiology and Pain, 6(4),
33-45.
Flannery, A. H., & Parli, S. E. (2016). Medication errors in cardiopulmonary arrest and code-
related situations. American Journal of Critical Care, 25(1), 12-20.
Gorgich, E. A. C., Barfroshan, S., Ghoreishi, G., & Yaghoobi, M. (2016). Investigating the
causes of medication errors and strategies to prevention of them from nurses and nursing
student viewpoint. Global journal of health science, 8(8), 220.

11HEALTHCARE ASSIGNMENT
Karimi, R., Fortner, J., Rao, D., & Su, J. (2018). Using Authentic Medication Errors to Promote
Pharmacy Student Critical Thinking and Active Learning. INNOVATIONS in
pharmacy, 9(1), 4-4.
Latimer, S., Hewitt, J., Stanbrough, R., & McAndrew, R. (2017). Reducing medication errors:
Teaching strategies that increase nursing students' awareness of medication errors and
their prevention.
Miladinia, M., Zarea, K., Baraz, S., Mousavi Nouri, E., Pishgooie, A. H., & Gholamzadeh Baeis,
M. (2016). Pediatric nurses’ medication error: the self-reporting of frequency, types and
causes. International Journal of Pediatrics, 4(3), 1439-1444.
Mohanty, S. (2016). Awareness of Medication Error, Medication Management and Prevention
among Staff Nurses in IMS &Sum Hospital, Odisha. Nitte University Journal of Health
Science, 6(4), 18.
Nanji, K. C., Patel, A., Shaikh, S., Seger, D. L., & Bates, D. W. (2016). Evaluation of
perioperative medication errors and adverse drug events. The Journal of the American
Society of Anesthesiologists, 124(1), 25-34.
Ogunleye, O. O., Oreagba, I. A., Falade, C., Isah, A., Enwere, O., Olayemi, S., ... & Obodo, J.
(2016). Medication errors among health professionals in Nigeria: a national
survey. International Journal of Risk & Safety in Medicine, 28(2), 77-91.
Olaniyan, J. O., Ghaleb, M., Dhillon, S., & Robinson, P. (2015). Safety of medication use in
primary care. International Journal of Pharmacy Practice, 23(1), 3-20.

12HEALTHCARE ASSIGNMENT
Rishoej, R. M., Almarsdóttir, A. B., Christesen, H. T., Hallas, J., & Kjeldsen, L. J. (2017).
Medication errors in pediatric inpatients: a study based on a national mandatory reporting
system. European journal of pediatrics, 176(12), 1697-1705.
Sarfati, L., Ranchon, F., Vantard, N., Schwiertz, V., Larbre, V., Parat, S., ... & Rioufol, C.
(2019). Human‐simulation‐based learning to prevent medication error: A systematic
review. Journal of evaluation in clinical practice, 25(1), 11-20.
Sarfati, L., Ranchon, F., Vantard, N., Schwiertz, V., Larbre, V., Parat, S., ... & Rioufol, C.
(2019). Human‐simulation‐based learning to prevent medication error: A systematic
review. Journal of evaluation in clinical practice, 25(1), 11-20.
Wolf, C., Pauly, A., Mayr, A., Grömer, T., Lenz, B., Kornhuber, J., & Friedland, K. (2015).
Pharmacist-led medication reviews to identify and collaboratively resolve drug-related
problems in psychiatry–a controlled, clinical trial. PloS one, 10(11), e0142011.