Reducing Medication Errors Essay

Steps to Reduce Medication Errors To successfully provide care to a patient the nurse must administer many different types of medications. Medication errors are one of the leading causes of avoidable harm to patients. There are many medications that have serious consequences if an incorrect dose is delivered. Administering some medications simultaneously can also cause serious reactions. Facilities attempt different initiatives to decrease these errors. Ultimately, it is up to the nurse to be educated on the medications they will be administering and ensure that the medication is administered correctly and accurately.

One study I read compared medication error rates when nurses used a separate medication preparation room to prepare medications.

My first nursing job was in a long term care facility that did not use this type of technology. The dosage ordered was hand written on cards. It was often confusing how much medication the patient was supposed to receive. I often felt nervous and stressed about the complicated med pass while working at the facility. The conclusion of a study done by comparing two nursing homes, one using electronic medical records, and one using a more traditional paper charting system showed, “the eMAR reduced the perceived risk of omitting a dose, medication errors occurring as a result of communication problems, and medication errors occurring as a result of inaccurate medication administration records” (Alenius, and Graf, 2016). Therefore, using technological advances and electronic medical records the patient and the nurse are safer during med administration.

Barriers that continue to exist to ensure safe medication delivery may be a lack of education, time constraints of staff, and technology malfunctions. Some nurses have been working in the field for a very long time and they may be uncomfortable with learning a new process involving medication administration. The nurse may feel the process adds too much time to their daily duties and may resist learning and using the system. Also, if the computer system is down and there is no paper version of what has been ordered the patient my miss a dosage