Medication Safety: Errors, Effects, and Prevention Strategies

This essay examines medication safety, focusing on the causes and effects of medication errors on patients and healthcare professionals. It discusses strategies recommended by the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care to reduce medication incidents, emphasizing the crucial role of nurses in preventing these errors. Key areas explored include language barriers, staff shortages, similar drug names, and the implementation of the five rights of medication administration. The essay also highlights the importance of therapeutic relationships, proper medication storage, and continuous professional development to minimize medication errors and improve patient outcomes. This document is available on Desklib, a platform offering a wealth of study resources, including past papers and solved assignments, for students.

Running Head: MEDICATION SAFETY
Medication Safety
Name
Institution
Course
Date

MEDICATION SAFETY 2
Introduction
Medication is the most common treatment interventions which are highly used in the
healthcare sector across the globe. According to Cooper & Nossaman (2013), when medication
is used safely and appropriately in the health sector, it contributes to significant improvement in
the health and wellbeing of individuals in the society. Medication safety is defined as the
freedom in which healthcare professionals try all the ways possible to prevent medications error
as they attend patients (Dolansky, Druschel, Helba & Courtney, 2013). Medication issues can
have adverse effects on the patient’s health. This paper focuses on the causes of medication
errors, effects of medication errors to the lives of patients, strategies which the Australian
commission on safety and quality of health acre has implemented to reduce occurrences of
medication errors and the role of nurses and healthcare professionals in reducing incidents of
medication errors.
Main Causes of Medication Errors
Various factors cause medication errors in health institutions. The first cause of
medication error is a language barrier in which the healthcare professional and the patient do not
understand each other. Clients who are only limited to their first language experience a lot of
challenges as they try to explain their health condition to healthcare professionals (Keers,
Williams, Cooke & Ashcroft, 2013). On the other hand, the healthcare professional may end up
misunderstanding the information been given and administer the wrong medication and
treatment to the patient which can affect their health. Staff shortage is considered a potential
cause of medication error in many hospitals. This is because most of the times a lot of people
seek medical attention and when staff members are not enough, one healthcare professionals are

MEDICATION SAFETY 3
charged with the responsibility of attending many patients at the same time (Latif, Rawat,
Pustavoitau, Pronovost & Pham, 2013). They end up getting tired and thus causing a lot of
mistakes. This can be through giving the wrong medication to a patient. Telephone calls are also
potential for creating medication errors. A healthcare professional can receive a phone call in the
middle of a very critical surgery like the brain surgery, they lose their concentration and focus,
and they end up making mistakes. Similar drug names can lead to doctors giving the wrong
drugs to a patient.
Effects of Medication Error on the Lives of Patients and Healthcare Professionals
Medication errors have negative impacts to both patient and healthcare provider. Patients
who are victims can suffer the temporary or permanent condition of the same. Temporary effects
include itching which makes the patient so much uncomfortable and they may even lack sleep
which causes distress making the health condition of the patient worsened (Nuckols et al., 2014).
They may also suffer from skin rashes and disfigurement which leads to low self-esteem and
isolation from other members of the community. When this happens to a student, it affects their
academic performance, and they end up failing in their exams. Permanent health status caused by
accidents during patient treatment include loose of memory. In advanced level medication errors
leads to the death of the victims. This profoundly affects family members and friends it becomes
tough for them to come to terms with the situation considering that the death of their loved ones
was caused by something which can be avoided (Radley et al., 2013). Doctors and healthcare
professional who create medication errors suffer from shame and self-doubt. In extent to which
medication errors cause death to the victim, healthcare professionals suffer from guilt. Patients
and their family members may take law against them which leads to healthcare professionals
losing their jobs.

MEDICATION SAFETY 4
Strategies which are recommended to Reduce Incidents of Medication Errors
Australian Commission on Safety and Quality healthcare should ensure that the following
strategies are used in health institutions to prevent occurrences of medication errors. It should
ensure that the five rights of medication administration are used in the healthcare sectors.
Healthcare professionals should make sure that policies which are related to medication safety as
set by the country are followed when administering treatment and medication to patients so that
they cannot end up causing medication errors (“NSQHS, 2017”). The commission enforces that
healthcare professionals should follow the right medication reconciliation procedure when giving
health care services to clients. They should support the right channel of transferring a patient
from one unit to another. Healthcare professionals should ensure that they provide the proper
dosage and route to patients. For doctors to be sure that what they are doing is correct, they
should double check or even triple check the procedures which they are using to give medication
to a client. Lastly, Australian commission on safety and quality health should ensure that
healthcare institutions have proper storage of medication for appropriate efficacy (“ACSQHC,
November 2017”). Drugs which have to be refrigerated should be kept in refrigerators so that
they may not become poisonous.
Role of the Nurse to Reduce Medication Errors
Nurses and other healthcare professionals play a predominant part when it comes to
reducing and preventing medication errors. Healthcare professionals should first build a strong
therapeutic relationship with their patients so that patients can feel free to share their confidential
information which nurses can use to administer the right medication and treatment to them
(Keers, Williams, Cooke & Ashcroft, 2013). They should also ensure that they do not administer

MEDICATION SAFETY 5
medication to patients which they are not familiar with or they lack knowledge about it. They
should instead network with other healthcare professionals so that they can be helped in case
they encounter a complicated situation which they cannot manage on their own (Vaismoradi,
Jordan, Turunen & Bondas, 2014). Nurses should ensure that drugs and medications which are
fragile and need to be stored in refrigerators are refrigerated so that they do not become
poisonous causing severe health impacts on the patient.
Conclusion
Medication safety is an essential component in the healthcare sector. Healthcare
professionals should ensure that they are very keen when administering medication and treatment
to patients so that they do not end up causing medication errors which have adverse effects on
their health. Instead of creating medication errors due to lack of knowledge and expertise in a
specific field, healthcare professionals should work together and network to share their
experiences which can significantly be used to reduce and prevent incidences of medication
errors. The government should ensure that there are rules and regulations which have to be
followed in the healthcare sector so that healthcare professionals do not end up causing careless
medication errors.

MEDICATION SAFETY 6
References
Clinical Governance for Doctors - Safety and Quality. (n.d.). Retrieved from
https://www.safetyandquality.gov.au/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Clinical-governance-
for-nurses-and-midwives.pdf
Cooper, L., & Nossaman, B. (2013). Medication errors in anesthesia: a review. International
anesthesiology clinics, 51(1), 1-12.
Dolansky, M. A., Druschel, K., Helba, M., & Courtney, K. (2013). Nursing student medication
errors: a case study using root cause analysis. Journal of professional nursing, 29(2),
102-108.
Keers, R. N., Williams, S. D., Cooke, J., & Ashcroft, D. M. (2013). Causes of medication
administration errors in hospitals: a systematic review of quantitative and qualitative
evidence. Drug safety, 36(11), 1045-1067.
Keers, R. N., Williams, S. D., Cooke, J., & Ashcroft, D. M. (2013). Prevalence and nature of
medication administration errors in health care settings: a systematic review of direct
observational evidence. Annals of Pharmacotherapy, 47(2), 237-256.
Latif, A., Rawat, N., Pustavoitau, A., Pronovost, P. J., & Pham, J. C. (2013). National study on
the distribution, causes, and consequences of voluntarily reported medication errors
between the ICU and non-ICU settings. Critical care medicine, 41(2), 389-398.
Medication Safety. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://nationalstandards.safetyandquality.gov.au/4.-
medication-safety

MEDICATION SAFETY 7
Nuckols, T. K., Smith-Spangler, C., Morton, S. C., Asch, S. M., Patel, V. M., Anderson, L. J., ...
& Shekelle, P. G. (2014). The effectiveness of computerized order entry at reducing
preventable adverse drug events and medication errors in hospital settings: a systematic
review and meta-analysis. Systematic reviews, 3(1), 56.
Radley, D. C., Wasserman, M. R., Olsho, L. E., Shoemaker, S. J., Spranca, M. D., & Bradshaw,
B. (2013). Reduction in medication errors in hospitals due to adoption of computerized
provider order entry systems. Journal of the American Medical Informatics
Association, 20(3), 470-476.
Vaismoradi, M., Jordan, S., Turunen, H., & Bondas, T. (2014). Nursing students' perspectives of
the cause of medication errors. Nurse Education Today, 34(3), 434-440.