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ethical principles of healthcare, nurses
ethical principles of healthcare, nurses
ethics and professionalism in the healthcare field
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Recommended: ethical principles of healthcare, nurses
Tayler Mortensen
November 8, 2017
Pharmacology
Dr. Garcia
The Magnitude of Medication Administration As I pursue my career in the nursing field, there are many safe practices I will incorporate each day to ensure safe medication administration to my patients. Although it may sound intimidating to administer such potent drugs, many methods prove to provide safety while doing so. Moving on, a nurse must always think ethically correct when considering safe medication administration. Lastly, I will discuss various aspects that enhance or impede medication safety and nursing care. In order to keep my patient’s safe, I will need to ensure that I practice safe medication administration. Methods producing safe nursing practice hold much value.
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Ethics are in every aspect of nursing, especially medication administration. Many aspects can enhance or impede medication safety and nursing care. Communication proves to be a crucial part of ensuring patient safety. Another way to provide patient safety is to limit distractions while calculating and delivering medication. A huge impairment of medication administration is not taking on the responsibility fully. As a nurse, one must keep in mind aspects that can help or impede medication safety and nursing care. To ensure patient safety, nurses must incorporate safe medication administration practices into everyday life. Because nurses have a job with such a potential to inflict danger on patients, all must consider methods to give medications as safely as possible. Having an ethical mind while considering safe medication administration proves crucial for nurses around the world. Certain actions may promote or obstruct medication safety and nursing care. While I further my career in the field of nursing, I will need to be sure to practice safe medication administration skills to keep my patients
Overall, I retain three goals for this clinical day: Safely and efficently administer medication, enhance my nursing/CNA skills, and determine how to implement infection control into a health care setting. This week reflects my assigned time to administer medication in a health care setting for the first time, with a resident who retains nearly twenty medications. I except this experience will be a great learning experience, but it will also subsist slightly stressful. With the assistance of my FOR, my goal is to administer all of my resident 's medications without complications. To ensure that medication safety, I will perform the six medication rights and three checks prior to administration. Along with medication administration, a goal
The study concluded with results that recommend all nursing students to be supervised in the clinical setting. Undergraduate nursing student are at risk of making errors when administering medications to patients in hospitals. Adequate supervision assisted avoiding errors which indicates that supervision is an essential component for safe medication administration by nursing students. Educators for the nursing
Safety is focused on reducing the chance of harm to staff and patients. The 2016 National Patient Safety Goals for Hospitals includes criteria such as using two forms of identification when caring for a patient to ensure the right patient is being treated, proper hand washing techniques to prevent nosocomial infections and reporting critical information promptly (Joint Commission, 2015). It is important that nurses follow standards and protocols intending to patients to decrease adverse
Furthermore, short staffing affects the quality direct care each patient receives. The National Coordinating Council for Medication Error Reporting and Prevention (2012) states an estimated 98,000 individuals die every year from medical errors in the United States. One out of many significant tasks nurses do within their scope of practice is medication administration. Research shows a relationship between short staffing on medication errors: the longer the hours nurses work, the higher the chances of medication errors (Garnett, 2008). (include definition of medication error) Administering medications requires knowledge of patient rights, pharmacological information on the drug, adverse effects, proper dosage calculations, and hospital protocols. When nurses are assigned more patients, they are pressured to give due medications on time. Sometimes due to hunger or fatigue, nurses give the wrong medication to the wrong patient (Frith, Anderson, Tseng, & Fong, 2012).
Medication errors made by medical staff bring about consequences of epidemic proportions. Medical staff includes everyone from providers (medical doctors, nurse practitioners and physician assistants) to pharmacists to nurses (registered and practical). Medication errors account for almost 98,000 deaths in the United States yearly (Tzeng, Yin, & Schneider, 2013). This number only reflects the United States, a small percentage in actuality when looking at the whole world. Medical personnel must take responsibility for their actions and with this responsibility comes accountability in their duties of medication administration. Nurses play a major role in medication error prevention and education and this role distinguishes them as reporters of errors.
Ethical dilemmas are the issues that nurses have to encounter everyday regardless of where their workplaces are. These problems significantly impact both health care providers and patients. Patient safety is the most priority in nursing and it can be jeopardized by a slight mistake. Medication errors and reporting medication errors have been major problems in health care. Errors with medications have been found to be the most common cause of adverse drug effects (Brady, Malone, Fleming, 2009). Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago conducted a research in 2012 that approximately forty percent of the hospitalized clients have encountered a medication error (Lahue et al., 2012). A nurse’s role is to identify and report these medication errors immediately in order to stop or minimize any possible harm to the patients. Ethical moral dilemmas arise when reporting the mistakes that have been made by one’s own colleagues, acquaintances, peers, or physicians.
Physicians ultimately decide what dose and drug will benefit the patient and restore them back to health. Held by the standards set by The College of Physicians and Surgeons, Physicians must abide by the Health Professions Act. Physicians are responsible to prescribe the right medication and right dosage. It is thought that physicians and other prescribers are ultimately to blame for medication errors. Although malpractices do occur among physicians, nurses are responsible to have a thorough understanding of the medications one administers to their patients. A nurse does not just simply do what they are told and administer drugs without having a thorough understanding and background knowledge. Nurses are to know the purpose of each drug they administer, the therapeutic effects, side effects which can be harmless or injurious, and adverse effects which is a severe negative response to the drug (2009). In reference to the previously mentioned scenario, the physician’s handwriting was careless and illegible. Although the Physician demonstrated lack of clarity, the nurse noticed the hastily written sentence signed by the physician and continued to administer the drug as she had routinely done the past couple days. Nurse’s should have a strong pharmaceutical knowledge background and be aware of the potential harm a medication could cause. In the process of medication administration, registered nurses are responsible to “determine that each medication order is clear, accurate, current and complete. Medications should be withheld when a medication order is incomplete, illegible, ambiguous or inappropriate; with concerns being clarified with the prescriber (CNO, 2015)”. The critical care nurse demonstrated ineffective communication, which was shown by failing to ask the physician for clarification. Another instance of miscommunication is during medication
...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.
4). Examples of how nurses can integrate this competency include; using current practice guidelines and researching into hospital’s policies (Jurado, 2015). According to Sherwood & Zomorodi (2014) nurses should use current evidence based standards when providing care to patients. Nurse B violated one of the rights of medication administration. South Florida State Hospital does not use ID wristbands; instead they use a picture of the patient in the medication cup. Nurse B did not ask the patient to confirm his name in order to verify this information with the picture in the computer. By omitting this step in the process of medication administration, nurse B put the patient at risk of a medication error, which could have caused a negative patient
When nurses with untreated, active dependency are providing care, the practice of the nurse is impaired and can negatively affect patient safety (Kunyk & Austin, 2012). If the drugs are acquired from the hospital or workplace, patients may suffer by being under-medicated. Nurses are required to address threats that occur in the del...
This assignment will discuss the professional, legal and ethical issues related to the self-use of medication by nurses. It will also explore the importance of reporting this misconduct by both professionals in the scenario and how they might do so. The self-use of medication by nurses is not allowed or justifiable according to the guidance provided to nurses by An Bord Altranais (ABA 2007). It will also be evident throughout this assignment the need for Jack to report Linda’s self-use of the medication or urge Linda to do so regardless of the consequences it may present to both him and Linda as according to Nurses and Midwifery Board of Ireland (NMBI 2013), nurses can now be held responsible for not taking action. This is because delivering the greatest level of care to a patient is an essential role of a nurse and the main focus of the nurse’s work should be on caring for that patient (ABA 2010). There is also an ethical duty upon both nurses to report the misconduct according to the four ethical principles; Beneficence, non-maleficence, justice and autonomy (Edwards 2009).
Patient safety should be the highest priority when it comes to health care, so why wouldn't the administrators reduce the ratio of nurse to patients to provide maximum patient care? Nurses that have a higher workload of patients are probably more prone to commit a medication error because they may not have the time to do the five checks of medication administration: the right drug, the right dose, the right route, the right time, and the right patient.
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.
Trounce, J. (2000) Clinical pharmacology for nurses: the role of the nurse in drug administration. 16th Ed. London: Churchill Livingstone.
Care planning is one of these tasks, as expressed by, RNCentral (2017) in “What Is a Nursing Care Plan and Why is it Needed?” it says, “Care plans provide direction for individualized care of the client.” A care plan is for an individual patient and unique for the patient’s diagnosis. It is a nurse’s responsibility to safely administer a patient’s medication prescribed by the doctor. Colleran Michelle Cook (2017) in “Nurses’ Six Rights for Safe Medication Administration,” she says, “The right patient, the right drug, the right dose, the right route and the right time form the foundation from which nurses practice safely when administrating medications to our patients in all health care settings.” Nurses must be safe when dealing with medications, and making sure they have the right patient. Nurses document the care that is given to their patient, as said by, Medcom Trainex (2017) in “Medical Errors in Nursing: Preventing Documentation Errors,” it states, “Nurses are on the front lines of patient care. Their written accounts are critical for planning and evaluation of medical interventions and ongoing patient care.” Nurses must provide an exact, complete, and honest accounts of everything that happens with a patient. Doing this allows for the proper evaluation, and medical interventions for the patient. The typical tasks a nurse involves care planning, administration of treatments and medication, and documenting the care given to a