Medication Safety Report: Causes, Impact, and Prevention Strategies

This report delves into the critical issue of medication safety, examining the factors that contribute to medication errors, their impact on patient safety, and strategies for prevention within a nursing context. The report identifies key factors such as nurses' mathematical skills, their knowledge of medicines, and workload/staffing levels as significant contributors to medication errors. It explains how deficiencies in these areas can lead to mistakes in medication administration, potentially harming patients. The report emphasizes the importance of nurses' comprehensive knowledge of medications, including their actions, side effects, and correct dosages. It also highlights the influence of staffing levels and workload on error rates. The conclusion stresses the nurse's responsibility in medication management, including accurate administration, continuous learning, and patient education. The report also outlines strategies for preventing medication errors, such as improving mathematical skills, enhancing medication knowledge, and optimizing staffing levels. The student uses evidence-based references, including textbooks, nursing journals, and Australian government health websites, to support the analysis and recommendations, ultimately aiming to inform and improve clinical practice on clinical placement. The report also includes an introduction discussing the significance of medication errors and their impact on patient safety, and a conclusion describing how the provided information will inform the student's practice on the next clinical placement.

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Introduction
This essay highlights the significance of medication safety with three related factors of medicine
mistakes, impact on patient safety and description of the evidence in clinical placement. The
maximum shared procedure of action used in health care is medicine. Nevertheless, use of
medicine is also related with harms. Additionally, medicines are associated with errors and
adverse side effects meanwhile; range of serious harm is low, medication errors directly affect
the health consequences and healthcare charges. Knowledge of adverse medicines events,
occurrence and the preventive measures is essential for the improvement of safety (Levett-Jones,
2018).
In 2013, medication safety of Australia ranked third in a survey series for the availability of
literature and knowledge on medicine safety in “Australian Health care”. Further, the evidence
based medication related problems and medication safety in Australia considerably expanded
(Libby Roughead, 2013).
Australian substantiation shows that medicine errors at changeovers of care between communal
and acute care surroundings can be decreased through the technique of medication settlement
and the usage of an intervening medication chart when patients moves from infirmaries to
residencies. Indication for positive plans for the reduction of prescription, management and
dispensation of errors provisions the usage of identical medicine charts, better-quality medicine
delivery system (C Meyer-Massetti, 2011).

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Factors causing medication errors
Medication errors are divided into two categories: “errors of commission and errors of
omission”, all of these are divided into unintentional and intentional mistakes (RN Keers, 2013).
Furthermore, the factors relating to medication errors are:
Mathematical skills of nurses
Medicine intention, venous guideline, and output and intake intention are included in
mathematical proficiency which is considered as a prerequisite for the performance of numerous
nursing functions. Studies and researches shows that nurses fails to make appropriate dosage
calculations due to lack mathematical skills. Additionally, there are three identified medication
calculation deficiencies amongst the nurses, which comprises of conceptual, mathematical and
measurement inabilities. The most continuous type of error is found to be conceptual error.
Therefore, medication deviousness is a hazard issue and a possible basis of mistakes.
There are numerous preventive measure introduced to reduce the occurrence of mistakes have
been applied like complete knowledge of medicines during orientation period. Maximum errors
are made by the 3 year period nurses. Also, mathematics calculation tests and examination
during the orientation period can be introduced. However, the test only can help in the analysis
of theoretical knowledge and not in the practical knowledge (Indrayan, 2012).
Nurses knowledge of Medicines
In hospitals, nurses are responsible for the medicines they administer. Thus, necessitates entire
information of the act, side-effects and precise amount of any medicines they manage. Nurses
have to update their knowledge of medicines as there are numerous medicines available for the
administration in hospitals and communities. As per studies and researches, that pharmacists

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have adequate knowledge of medications however, nurses and doctors lack the knowledge.
However, extent of working knowledge is not an issue in medication information. Nurse’s
managers and trainers have improved information of medicines than the harbors that are actually
accountable for administration. The investigators and researchers suggest that examination of
medicine knowledge on the initiation of service and consistent provision informs for the nurtures
who manages medicines. Therefore, absence of information is an obstinate issue in healthcare. In
the management of drugs by nurses, lack of knowledge accounted total of 15% problems related
to medication safety (Bogner, 2018).
Numerous strategies and plans have been introduced for the prevention of medication errors,
comprising the increase in knowledge of medicines. Researchers state that the nurses who
continuously update their knowledge of medicines make few mistakes related to medicine than
those who do not. Usage of orientation materials and communication with colleagues are
recognized as helpful source of updating the knowledge.
Workload and Staffing levels
The rate of medication error is highly affected by the workload levels and staffing levels. The
researchers suggested that proper recruitment levels are required, sideways with a decrement in
workload so that medicine errors can be reduced. Medication errors are categorized permitting
to the reason and fundamental association to systems failures. The researchers have recognized
shortages in the area of recruitment and capability, comprising inappropriate skill mixture, as the
major problems subsidizing to adverse side effects. The researchers also stated that adverse side
effects are not medication errors, which influences the results. The effect of nine workload
factors and seasonal changes on medicine errors. As per studies, errors increase with the number
of patient increases every day and the count of shifts worked by the staff members. Additionally,

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errors decreased with the number of overtime worked by permanent staff of nursing. The
optimistic result of overtime of medicines mistakes might be because of the grade with which
knowledgeable staff worked tirelessly rather than paying support staff. This is an essential factor
to be borne in mind by nurse managers. Therefore, capability and staffing numbers do impact
medicine mistakes. Staff absenteeism is also a factor related to medication errors. All healthcare
services and hospitals face staffing shortages at some point of period. Deficiencies of treatment
personnel upsurge the count of medicine management per nurses and hence might surge the
opportunity of mistakes. The count of medicines circles a nurse has to achieve relates to the
system of treatment and the medicine supply organization in habitation in an infirmary (Cloete,
2015).
Conclusion
Medicine errors do happens and are an obstinate issue related with nursing practice. Therefore,
as a registered nurse, it is care taker’s duty to formulate, patterned, manage medicine, keep
informed the knowledge of medicines, and observe the efficiency of the handling, inform the
contrary reactions immediately and, impart patients about the medicines. The issues recognized
are owing to personal organizations and administrative issues. Measurement capability of nurses
was emphasized, valuation of capacity, nursing care distribution organizations and recruitment
stages are also some influences related to the medication errors. Preliminary evidence indicates
that while patients might be willing to play an active role in the decrement of patient safety
incidents, therefore, nurses should interact with patient and should educate the patients regarding
the mediations and doses.

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Bibliography
Bogner, M., 2018. Human error in medicine. 1 ed. Boca Raton: CRC Press.
C Meyer-Massetti, C. C., 2011. Systematic review of medication safety assessment
methods. American Journal of Health-System Pharmacy, 68(3), pp. 227-240.
Cloete, L., 2015. Reducing medication errors in nursing practice. Cancer Nursing
Practice, 14(1), p. 1.
Indrayan, A., 2012. Medical biostatistics. 3 ed. New York: Chapman and Hall/CRC.
Levett-Jones, T. M., 2018. Medication administration. 1 ed. Melbourne: Pearson
Australia.
Libby Roughead, S. S. E. R., 2013. Medication Safety in Australia. Sydney: Australian
Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care, p. 6.
RN Keers, S. W. J. C., 2013. Prevalence and nature of medication administration errors
in health care settings: a systematic review of direct observational evidence. Annals of
Pharmacotherapy, 47(2), pp. 237-256.

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