Medication Administration Essay

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Medication administration is a critical component of nursing management skills. Best practices of MA require critical thinking ability to ensure patient safety, quality care, and prevention of medication administration errors. “A medication error is any preventable event that may cause or lead to inappropriate medication use or patient harm while the medication is in the control of the health care professional or consumer” (National Coordinating Council for Medication Error Reporting and Prevention, 2006). The authors of this article are Carolyn Hayes, RN, Deborah Jackson, Ph.D., RN, Patricia M Davidson, Ph.D., RN, FAAN, and Tamara Power, Ph.D., RN. This article is to explore the current curriculum of medication administration, and identify …show more content…

A nurse who administers medications to a patient uses assessment skills along with the six rights of medication administration to ensure patient safety. Research shows that interruptions in medication administration are the main cause of error. Although the six rights of medication administration are taught in nursing education, “approximately 20% of all Medication Administrations result in error, including financial and personal costs. Attached to these errors are increased lengths of stay, readmissions, patient mortality, and emotional distress of the patient, relatives and administering nurse” (Hay, Jackson, Davidson, & Power, 2015). Preventative measures to ensure patient safety must be taught by learning how to manage …show more content…

Focus would be the first right of medication administration to ensure that the process is going to be completed safely despite interruption. This requires hands on experience in the clinical setting with an emphasis on medication administration competence involving interruption techniques and strategies to manage and prioritize when faced with unavoidable distractions. A nationwide, better designed curriculum including another step in the medication administration process instead of the assumption that nurses will maintain patient safety despite distractions is incumbent. Best practices and education of this skill can aim to prevent the number one error of medication administration being, inevitabilities of distractions in the health care

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