The Truth Behind Medication Errors

A lot of people die yearly by medicinal drug errors rather than by workplace traumas. A few researchers propose that doctors and nurses comprehend that client safety is one of main duty of nurses. Since RNs have a fundamental function in maintaining the safety of patients, possibilities of mistakes in dispensing drugs can very well be ascribed to nurses instead of scheme failures. Even so, evidence depicts that nursing alertness protects patients versus hazardous practices. For instance, one survey displayed nurses were accountable for stopping almost 90% of medication faults made by doctors, pharmacists and other members of the health team before the error came about. A collaborative method that affects the entire health care team as well as management is a healthy technique for preserving the safety of clients.

Why does medication administration error occur?

Every pace in client care implicates a possibility for mistake and quite some level of danger to the patient. Today’s multifaceted health care delivery system can produce some issues on safe care for clients. A suitable knowledge of the factors that elevated the incidence medication administration mistakes is the initial march towards avoiding them. The frequent factors linked with this error are the following:

* Applying the incorrect name of drug, dosage preparation, or modality;
* Errors on accounting dosage;
* Irregular and critical dosing.

Equal with other safety issues, medication administration faults develop from human sources or system failures. Other factors, such as insufficient training, unjustified time limitation, and low perception of danger can also add to its occurrence.

The top 3 commonly described cases of medication administration mistakes are as follows:

* Error through omission (failing to give a medication prescribed);
* Inappropriate dosage (dose of meds, potency, or amount given differ from what the physician ordered);
* Unauthorized medication errors (drug administered was not authorized in the doctor’s order)