NURS FPX 4000 Assessment 2: Developing a Health Care Perspective

NHS 4000: Developing a Health Care Perspective

Research Skills

The selected healthcare concern is medication errors. The issue refers to preventable mistakes during the medical administration process, which have the potential to cause adverse outcomes and undesired patient experiences (Manias et al., 2020). Examples of medical errors are patients taking medication in inappropriate dosages or receiving wrong prescriptions.

The primary relevance of the healthcare concern from a professional perspective is its impact, yet it is preventable. In this regard, medication errors can cause severe harm to the patient by lowering the safety and quality of care provided. Consequently, this increases the cost incurred by individuals and patients as they grapple to deal with the effects of mistakes during the medication administration process. I have an undesired professional experience with the identified healthcare concern. It involves confusing prescriptions for a patient exposed to high radiation. The attending doctor prescribed filgrastim to help manage the vomiting and nausea symptoms shown by the patient. However, when stating the drug name, the pharmacists failed to hear it correctly, as the order was made verbally. Consequently, the pharmacist administered pegfilgrastim, and since the attending doctor had shifted to another patient, he had no time to countercheck the medications. After taking pegfilgrastim for almost 11 days instead of filgrastim, the patient developed pulmonary toxicity, which exacerbated his condition, leading to administration in the ICU.

Searching Peer-Reviewed Academic Articles

The peer-reviewed articles related to the identified health issue were searched using keywords related to the concern. The main keyword was “medication administration errors.” The primary database where I searched was the Capella University Online Library via summon as a search engine. Furthermore, I searched on Cochrane and PubMed. In all the searchers, I filtered the results, ensuring that the outcomes were peer-reviewed articles published recently.

Credibility and Relevance of the Source.

The articles and sources acquired were relevant because they were current, having been published within the last five years. Moreover, they were peer-reviewed. Another factor that ensured that the studies were credible is that the authors of each publication had sufficient knowledge of the subject area and focused on evaluating the identified concern. This ensured that the information within each source was relevant to the analysis focusing on medication errors.

Annotated Bibliography

Manias, E., Kusljic, S., & Wu, A. (2020). Interventions to reduce medication errors in adult medical and surgical settings: a systematic review. Therapeutic Advances in Drug Safety, 11, 2042098620968309. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/2042098620968309

The study’s primary purpose is to explain the strategies for reducing medication errors. Mainly, it focuses on errors occurring within the adult surgical and medical settings. Using a comparative approach that compares various interventions for managing medication errors, the authors first recognize that errors can occur at any point during the meditation administration process. They compared 12 interventions for managing medication errors from studies acquired after searching on MEDLINE, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, EMBASE, CINAHL, and PsycINFO. The outcome indicated that interventions that had a significant effect on reducing medication errors comprised pharmacist-led medication reconciliation, computerized medication reconciliation, pharmacist partnership, prescriber education, medication reconciliation using trained mentors, and computerized physician order entry (CPOE) in that order based on effectiveness. Even though each approach effectively reduced medication errors, using a combined approach where two or more interventions were utilized together had a more desired effect. The rationale behind using this study is that it helps inform and recommend effective interventions for managing medication errors.

Elliott, R. A., Camacho, E., Jankovic, D., Sculpher, M. J., & Faria, R. (2021). Economic analysis of the prevalence and clinical and economic burden of medication error in England. BMJ Quality & Safety, 30(2), 96-105. https://qualitysafety.bmj.com/content/30/2/96.abstract

The primary purpose of this study is to explain the undesired impact of medication errors from an economic perspective. In this regard, the authors carry out a quantitative study on the incidence rates and subsequent effects of medical errors, where they establish if they are avoidable or not. For example, the study establishes that avoiding adverse drug events is the leading form of medication errors. In this regard, they cause adverse economic impacts on both the patients and the healthcare system. For instance, the study establishes that avoidable adverse drug events cost £98 462 582 annually while taking up around 181 626 bed days. In extreme outcomes, the study links avoidable adverse drug events to about 1708 deaths. The primary rationale for utilizing this study is to understand the economic impact of medication errors. Moreover, since the study was carried out in England, the article is essential in helping show the universal nature of medication errors as a healthcare concern.

Zheng, W. Y., Lichtner, V., Van Dort, B. A., & Baysari, M. T. (2021). The impact of introducing automated dispensing cabinets, barcode medication administration, and closed-loop electronic medication management systems on work processes and safety of controlled medications in hospitals: A systematic review. Research in Social & Administrative Pharmacy: RSAP, 17(5), 832–841. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sapharm.2020.08.001

The primary purpose of this study is to explain the strategies that can be used to prevent and eradicate incidences of medication errors. In this regard, the authors recommended technological approaches where specific healthcare technologies are incorporated into patient care activities, leading to improved safety of care. The recommended techniques are mainly related to increasing efficiency during drug administration. For instance, there is a recommendation for using automated dispensing cabinets, which helps eliminate the incidence rate of medication errors due to confusion about patient dosages and prescriptions. The findings from the article indicate that specific healthcare technologies like closed-loop electronic medication management and Barcoded Medication Administration (BCMA) can increase the safety of administering drugs during patient care, resulting in reduced incidences of medication errors. Thus, the main rationale for using this study is that it suggests appropriate technologies that can help increase patient safety by lowering and subsequently eliminating incidences of medication errors.

Gualano, M. R., Lo Moro, G., Voglino, G., Catozzi, D., Bert, F., & Siliquini, R. (2021). Wrong administration route of medications in the domestic setting: a review of an underestimated public health topic. Expert Opinion on Pharmacotherapy, 22(8), 1051–1059. https://doi.org/10.1080/14656566.2021.1876027

The primary purpose of the study is to explain the significance of wrongly administering medication as a cause of medication errors. According to the authors, incorrect administration of medication is the primary cause of medication errors. This explains that the incidence rate of medication errors significantly depends on caregivers’ conduct and the setting within a healthcare organization. For example, they note that erroneous administration of medications increases the risk of adverse experiences such as undesired drug interactions. However, solving the issue of medication errors caused by erroneous medication administration is challenging because data on the administration of medications is lacking. Thus, it is essential to try and come up with strategies for ascertaining the exact cause of drug administration errors and then developing appropriate approaches for managing and reducing them. The primary rationale for utilizing this study in the research geared towards managing the concern of medication errors is that it will encourage improvements in medication administration practices, resulting in reduced incidence of errors and improved patient safety.

Lessons from the Research

Analysis of peer-reviewed articles and studies relating to medication errors has enlightened me on patient safety. For instance, I have learned that the occurrence of adverse events, such as medication errors, tends to affect both individual personnel and the healthcare organization as an entity. For example, individual patients may receive unsafe care, deteriorating their condition and lowering the quality of care issued. Regarding healthcare organizations, adverse events may lead to incidences such as huge patient readmission rates. The assessment has also taught me the significance of developing evidence-based practices that have a higher efficiency than standard approaches to offering patient care.

References

Zheng, W. Y., Lichtner, V., Van Dort, B. A., & Baysari, M. T. (2021). The impact of introducing automated dispensing cabinets, barcode medication administration, and closed-loop electronic medication management systems on work processes and safety of controlled medications in hospitals: A systematic review. Research In Social & Administrative Pharmacy: RSAP, 17(5), 832–841. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sapharm.2020.08.001