Analyzing Medication Errors Nursing

NURSING

Nursing: Interdisciplinary Plan Proposal to Reduce Medication Errors

Medication errors have been identified as one of the most significant issues causing high rates of adverse patient outcomes in healthcare. It has set the healthcare professionals on high alarms since certain subgroups of the population are at high risk of fatality due to this aggravating concern. This paper aims to synthesize an interdisciplinary proposal plan for curbing this issue where nurses can play a vital role. 

Objective

Acknowledged by World Health Organization (WHO), Point-of-Care Quality Improvement (POCQI) model would be used for interdisciplinary collaboration involving nurses to reduce the rate of medication errors (Mondal et al., 2022). This objective has been proved to provide positive results since maximum utilization of available resources with less burden on one professional throughout the transition of care. 

Questions and Predictions

The questions for implementing the proposed plan include:

· How much time would be taken for its actual implementation? There is an expectation it would take six months, which could be a long time, before curbing the issue at the facility; however, by gaining knowledge and training through working with professionals via an interdisciplinary approach, it is predicted the reduction would be observed at a faster rate.

· Would the team members be trained or qualified for the proposed task? It is recommended that experts from each department should be included in the team; however, taking an intern or newly hired staff workers would not be undervalued since novel inputs from fresh perspectives should be welcomed.  

· Should the team be small or large? The number of team members does not signify the amplification or effectiveness level of the plan; however, initially, it is expected the team members remain up to five so that collaboration remains tight. 

Change Theory and Leadership Strategy

Lewin’s 3-step change theory is deemed useful for implementing change in the process of implementing the POCQI model. The change model includes three stages: unfreezing, moving, and refreezing, which have proved effective in healthcare settings several times (Coulter, 2021). The first stage would require disruption of the existing status quo and might infuse survival anxiety since a team formation process might also cause reluctance to corporate with each other. The second stage would incorporate the necessary steps for actual change implementation, which could be new batch formation, including resident doctors, nurses, new trainees or interns (possibly), sisters, and faculty members (if required) (Mondal et al., 2022). Further steps would be a step-wise application of the model with long interactive sessions, audio-visual support for education, and knowledge dissemination regarding dosage, frequency, responsibilities, intervals, compatibility with relevance to patient’s condition, monitoring or morning rounds for prescription sheets via PDSA cycle (plan-do-study-act) (Mondal et al., 2022). The final stage would be about making the changed behaviors and actions a normal routine during and after six months. This change is chosen for inculcating only three simple steps compared to other models with up to eight or more steps. 

Team leadership/ shared or collectivist leadership would be best suited for interdisciplinary action since it aims at polishing team roles and responsibilities for coming together to achieve a shared common goal for the common good (De Brun et al., 2019). With team-building exercises and development programs, team leadership can be a strong source of motivation when roles are determined for the team members via transparent communication, promoting individual competencies, and understanding the collectivism approach towards the desired goal, which is medication reduction at the facility (De Brun et al., 2019). 

Team Collaboration Strategy

Definition of responsibilities of each team member would provide role clarity for interdisciplinary action, which would be in the following manner:

· Resident doctor would identify the changes needed after daily morning rounds by analyzing the prescriptions and monitoring sheets. 

· Nurses would ensure that evidence-based practices are incorporated throughout the process, starting from drug management to patient outcomes and that every department is fully complying and participating. 

· Sisters would ensure that prescriptions are managed daily and reviewed based on the indicated measures of the POCQI model, reducing the medication error rate for every 100 prescriptions (Mondal et al., 2022). 

· Faculty members would be responsible for making compatibility comparisons and determining modes of administration from outpatient to in-patient process so that transition of care errors could be prevented. 

· New trainees/ interns, just like the interviewee, would be accountable for ensuring seven rights, assisting with careful conduction of the procedures, and learning to embed evidence-based practices for delivering a safe environment for the incoming patients and their medication records. 

Required Organizational Resources

The rough estimate of the resources required for the proposed plan implementation are as follows:

Team Members

Resources Needed

Costs

Staff

5 team members for now

None

Staff time

One-hour training sessions for two weeks

Resource acquisition

Contacting the facility administration and high authorities to make arrangements for the resources needed for the training

Access charge

None of the charges do apply to the patients

None

Equipment/supplies

Prescriptions, audio-visual aid, drug list, evidence-based materials, training manuals, medical textbooks, monitoring sheets, etc.

Access to patient/ departments

Access to patients and departments is mandatory, and no costs are associated as the plan would be carried out within the daily routine of each department, from outpatient to in-patient facilities.