Medication Administration Errors; Issues and Solutions /what makes nurses to make drug errors

By

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would take this opportunity to thank my research supervisor, family and friends for their support and guidance without which this research would not have been possible.

DECLARATION

I [type your full first names and surname here], declare that the contents of this dissertation/thesis represent my own unaided work, and that the dissertation/thesis has not previously been submitted for academic examination towards any qualification. Furthermore, it represents my own opinions and not necessarily those of the University.

Signed __________________ Date _________________

ABSTRACT

Medication errors are very common in hospitals. There are many factors due to which medication administration errors occurs. One of the reasons are the over loading of work. The doctors and nurses have to attend lot of patients in limited time and hence it leads to medication administration errors. Patients can suffer a lot due to medication error. Many studies have been conducted in this regard and hence the nurses and the doctors must act upon them to minimize errors. There are basically three kinds of medication administration errors which are the nature of medicine, the incorrect dosage and the error of omission. All these errors could lead to disasters for the patients. Patient's safety is the basic duty of the nurses on duty and they should be very careful while attending the patient. Nurses play a role in ensuring patient safety by recognizing and reducing complications. Although nurses' role in preventing medication errors was identified more than a decade ago, only recently has nurses' pivotal role in addressing many other types of medication administration errors been identified.

Contents

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTii

DECLARATIONiii

ABSTRACTiv

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION1

Background1

Aims and objectives1

Problem statement2

Research question2

Significance2

Limitations3

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE VIEW4

Why Medication Errors Occur?4

Characteristics of medication errors4

Health systems without reproach5

Most common causes of medication errors6

Identifying Errors8

Involving another Nurse or Physician8

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY10

CHAPTER 4: DISCUSSION13

Impact on nurses and nursing practice13

How such errors can they get?13

The lack of recognition15

Legal issues16

Classification of injury18

Determining the extent of damage19

International developments19

Promote understanding of patients - to assume the level of literacy22

Current debate on causes22

Clinical impact23

Economic Impact24

Social impact24

Strategies and initiatives in reducing the incident25

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION27

Suggestions for Future Research28

REFERENCES30

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

Background

Medication administration errors and adverse events are common in intensive care units, and nurses are often involved in medication administration error recovery (ie, identifying, interrupting, and correcting medication administration errors) and preventing adverse outcomes. Although nurses have been recognized for their role in reducing the number of medication administration errors, only recently have nursing strategies for error recovery been described in the literature. Analysis of medication administration errors and adverse patient outcomes by the Institute of Medicine10, and others has shown that these errors result from both human and system failures. These analyses have led the health care community to issue a call to action to begin systematically addressing medication administration errors. This action plan requires investigating both the root causes of errors and methods for reducing the number of adverse events.

Aims and objectives

Experts have suggested that patient safety depends as much on preventing devastating incidents by improving systems as it ...