The ability to become reflective in practice has become a necessary skill for health professionals. This is to ensure that health professionals are continuing with their daily learning and improving their practice. Reflective practice plays a big part in healthcare today and is becoming increasingly noticed. Administration of medicines is a key element of nursing care. Every day some 7000 doses of medication are administered in a typical NHS hospital (Audit Commission 2002). So throughout this essay I will be evaluating and highlighting the learning that took place whilst on placement at a day unit. Drug administration forms a major part of the clinical nurse’s role. Medicines are prescribed by the doctor and dispensed by the pharmacist but responsibility for correct administration rests with the registered nurse (O'Shea 1999). So as a student nurse this has become my duty and something that I need to practice and become competent in carrying it out. Each registered nurse is accountable for his/her practice. This practice includes preparing, checking and administering medications, updating knowledge of medications, monitoring the effectiveness of treatment, reporting adverse drug reactions and teaching patients about the drugs that they receive (NMC 2008). Accountability also goes for students, if at any point I felt I was not competent enough to dispensing a certain drug it would be my responsibility in speaking up and let the registered nurses know, so that I could shadow them and have the opportunity to learn help me in future practice and administration. The reflective model I have chosen to use is Gibbs model (Gibbs 1988). Gibbs model of reflection incorporates the following: description, feelings, evaluation, and ... ... middle of paper ... ...(1988). Reflective model. Available from: http://www.health.uce.ac.uk/dpl/nursing/Placement%20Support/using_a_model_of_reflection.pdf (accessed on 20 November 2010) Hamann et al. (2005). Cited in .j psychiatric and mental health nursing. 2008 Mc Lellan A (2009) The nurse patient relationship will prove key to effective medication adherence. Nursing Times 105(3).29 Morris, D (2008). Using antipsychotics in primary care. Independent Nurse.pp35-36 Nursing and midwifery council (2008) The Code: standard of conduct, performance and ethics for nurses and midwives. London: Nursing and Midwifery council Nursing and Midwifery Council (2008) The Code Guidelines for records and record keeping. London: Nursing and midwifery council O’Shea, E (1999) Factors contributing to medication errors: a literature review. Journal of Clinical Nursing. 8, 5,496-503.
Standards are important aspects of nursing that a nurse must learn and implement every day for the rest of their nursing career. These standards provide for a nurse’s competence in the quality of care they deliver to the public. Standards offer a necessary guidance to nurses everywhere in an effort to ensure that people are treated correctly and ethically. Patients expect nurses to have a general knowledge of the medical realm and to know exactly what it is they –as nurses- are responsible for. Nurses need to have a sense of professionalism that enable the patient to feel safe and secure, knowing that a competent person is caring for him. A lack of professionalism does the opposite, making it impossible for a patient to trust or respect the nurse caring for him. Standards of nursing, if utilized correctly, give the nurse that sense of professionalism the patient is expecting. It insures for the safety of the patient and allows the nurse to provide quality health care that is expected of a medical professional.
...estions if not 100% sure of something or use a double checking system. When a nurse is administrating medication, they should use the ten rights of medication administration (right patient, right drug, right route, right time, right dose, right documentation, right action, right form, right response, and right to refuse). Nurses should always keep good hand hygiene and always wear appropriate clothing to prevent from the spread of disease. Good communication with patients and healthcare team members is also key to success. Keeping on the eye on the patient within an appropriate time is important. If the patient ever seems to be looking different than their usual self vitals should be taken immediately. Encouraging patients to ask questions if they are unaware of something can prevent errors as well. Nurses should make sure the patient is on the same page as they are.
Baccalaureate nurses are responsible for providing and ensure our patients safety. The knowledge from others mistakes can help informs nurses of extra precautions that we can take to ensure our patient’s safety. Risk Analysis and Implication for practice course helped me understand the steps I as a nurse can take as well as the facilities I work for to help reduce the number of medication errors that occur. Interviewing the pharmacist help me get a better insight to what facilities already have in place to help prevent medication errors. However like most things you have to have educated and compassionate caring staff to enforce and follow the guidelines set in place.
Some method such as audits, chart reviews, computer monitoring, incident report, bar codes and direct patient observation can improve and decrease medication errors. Regular audits can help patient’s care and reeducate nurses in the work field to new practices. Also reporting of medication errors can help with data comparison and is a learning experience for everyone. Other avenues that has been implemented are computerized physician order entry systems or electronic prescribing (a process of electronic entry of a doctor’s instructions for the treatment of patients under his/her care which communicates these orders over a computer network to other staff or departments) responsible for fulfilling the order, and ward pharmacists can be more diligence on the prescription stage of the medication pathway. A random survey was done in hospital pharmacies on medication error documentation and actions taken against pharmacists involved. A total of 500 hospital were selected in the United States. Data collected on the number of medication error reported, what types of errors were documented and the hospital demographics. The response rate was a total of 28%. Practically, all of the hospitals had policies and procedures in place for reporting medication errors.
NMC (2008) Code of Professional Conduct: Standards for Conduct, Performance and Ethics, Nursing and Midwifery Council.
The Codes of Practice is issues to all registered nurses, midwives and health visitors. The Council i...
Every day there is a constant trust adhered to many different people in the profession of Nursing—the decision of what will help patients in terms of medicine, and the confidence to make these decisions. One false act or one slight misdiagnoses of medication to a patient could be the prime factor in whether the patient lives or dies. Nurses in hospitals across the country are spread thin, and thus makes the probability of mistakes higher. If a medicinal dose is off by even one decimal a patient could die, so the only real answer is for nurses to not be afraid to ask for assistance, always follow procedure and voice opinion is they feel something is wrong.
The topic of this article is medication error related to chemotherapy drugs. Forty percent of medication errors have been related to chemotherapy drugs. It is imperative that the nurses are properly trained on these medications and fully understand what is being administered before giving it to the patient as well as know what the proper dose is before administering anything to the patient. More importantly the nurse must pay close attention to their patient’s response to the chemotherapy given to the patient or it could lead to a serious injury or death.
Parbury,S.J.(2013). Patient and Person: Interpersonal skills in nursing. Australia: Libby Houston. (4th Ed). pp. 54.
Taking medication - medications in pill, injectable, liquid and other forms – nursing education / monitoring
(9) United Kingdom Central Council for Nursing, Midwifery, and Health Visiting. (UKCC) (1992). Primary Health Care, Code of professional conduct for the nurse, midwife and health visitor. London: UKCC.8 (2)
Reflection is a significant component of pre-registration education (Davis et al.2000). Hillard (2006) claims that for practitioners to learn from an experience they need to go beyond description and should reflect on their experiences in practice as this could potentially uncover any underlying influences, motivations and knowledge. Reflecting on an experience could then be identified as a process to bridging the gap between theory and practice (Bulman & Schutz, 2004).
...Council, M., & Federation, A. N. (2008). Codes of Professional Conduct & Ethics for Nurses & Midwives, 2008: Australian Nursing and Midwifery Council.
The Medicare Modernization Act of 2003 recognizes that beneficiaries who reside in long term care facilities have needs for specialized pharmacy services, have access to a pharmacist 24 hours per day, seven days per week, and emergency deliveries of medication to assure residents receive timely access to appropriate medication therapies (CMS, 2014). To meet this type of service, many long term care facilities have contract with long-term care pharmacies (LTCP).
Gibbs’ reflective cycle encourages you to think thoroughly about the phases of an experience or activity, using the headings of the Gibbs’ cycle, you can use them to structure your reflection (Brookes.ac.uk, 2016).