Enhancing Nursing Service Delivery and Minimizing Errors

The article focuses on the role that nurses play in eliminating errors in various medical situations. The research focused on the relationship between the number of nurses and the prevalence of medical errors. The study unveiled many reasons why medical errors occur. Some medical errors are caused by interruption of the nurses while working or understaffing in various healthcare facilities. The study reveals that the nurses play an important role in reducing the medical errors because they are responsible for administering the medication and monitoring the progress of the patients. Major medical errors are common when few nurses are made to handle many patients. The study shows that when the workload is high, the nurses tend to take short cuts to ensure they deliver the service. As a result, medical errors result from omission of some steps, missing the proper order of procedures, and prescribing wrong/overdosing drugs. Often, medical errors occur during medical administrations, transcribing, and dispensations (Frith et al., 2012). The article shows that some of the errors are often a detriment to the health of the patients. Some medical errors result in the death of patients and permanent physical impairment for some patients.

The analysis of the study showed that medical errors are insignificant in some occasions. Examples of minor errors include improper dosage, wrong timing of the medication, and missing a step in a medical procedure. The errors hamper service delivery because their work involves handling the patients, advising the doctors on the progress of the patients, and information on patient discharge. The errors are manageable with good staffing of nurses and a reasonable number of patients in the health care. The findings from the study show that it is essential to handle medical records with care to uphold the health of the patient. The patient education is one of the elements that reduce medical errors. Literate patients can help nurses follow medical procedures when the number of patients that nurses handle is large. Clearly, the errors have a cost implication and therefore the need to introduce measures to prevent the errors in the hospital. Often, medical errors cause the increase in the patient readmissions and lawsuits when the implications of the errors are severe. The solutions to medical errors depend on decisions made by the management and commitment to staffing their facilities adequately.

The issue of medical errors is rampant in the modern society. Most health facilities are private businesses, and the owners are seeking to minimize cost and maximize profits. As a result, the private hospitals have few nurses attending many patients who end up being overworked, fatigued, and prone to mistakes. The medical errors are accidental and thus the need to address the matter because it is urgent. The topic addresses the problem in the modern health care that lowers the quality of services from the health care. The topic is important as it offers an avenue where solutions to the problem of medical errors are identified.

The concept of patient education is important in healthcare delivery. Often, literate patients can help nurses in reducing the number of medical errors like improper dosage or skipping medical procedures. Since illiteracy contributes to the errors, the introduction of patient education has helped reduce medical errors in many ways. For example, many patients know how to manage their health conditions and help the nurses in monitoring their healing process. The increase in the cases of medical errors has contributed to the patient education as a response to menace. The social media and media houses are a source of information that promotes the health of the patients. The patient education is an emerging issue in most health facilities to help reduce the cases of errors. There are many healthcare providers educating the patients regarding how to respond to an error. The patient education in the TV and movies has improved the patient participation in the treatment process (Frith et al., 2012).

The healthcare stallholders are focusing their efforts to reduce cases of medical errors. As a result, there are many health promotional programs seeking to empower patient and reduces the cases of medical errors. The change in the healthcare has helped in solving the problems with cases of understaffing. The topic is also relevant because it triggers research on the standard proportion of the patients and the medical providers. For example, the researchers are interested in the required number of nurses in a health facility to minimize the cases of errors (Frith et al., 2012). The rights of the patient's matters in the modern health care. The topic of staffing in health care unveils other important topics such as measures to cope with issues of patient privacy and the conditions when disclosing patient information is legal. The nurses are benefiting from educational programs that help them uphold ethics of their professionalism. The act of keeping sound medical records is desirable for the patients and the nurses because it improves the efficiency of service delivery in the health care.

The research in the article was a response to the increase in the medical errors in health institutions. The researchers were concerned with the most effective measures to reduce the medical errors in most of the community hospitals. The findings from the research show the focus of the research is staffing in hospitals and medical errors. The researchers were concerned with reasons for the prevalence of the medical errors. There is an increase in the knowledge of safety precautions in the health care. The technology has improved access to information about safety precautions in the workplace. As a result, the patients know their rights, and thus there is an increase in the number of patients seeking health care. As a result, the nurses are encountering difficulties in handling emerging medical complications. The research is a response to the changes in the healthcare. It is apparent in the findings that the researchers had an interest in the relationship between the working hours and the medical errors in the workplace.

The desire to improve medical outcomes in most health facilities is the motivation of most research. The research was seeking to identify the connections between nurses and the medical errors. The treatment process in the health care involves the doctor, the pharmacists, and the nurses. The nurses are the final person handling and monitoring the progress of the patient. As a result, most medical errors arise from the work of the nurses (Frith et al., 2012). The researchers were therefore concerned with causes of medical errors and the role of nurses in reduces the number of errors. Then nurse is the transition point between the medical error and the patient. In this case, the researchers were concerned with environmental factors that contribute to the medical errors in the healthcare. It was apparent that when the workload high, there are high chances that the errors occur. The medical errors occur because nurses take short cuts to complete the tasks.

Reference

Frith, K. H., Anderson, E. F., Tseng, F., & Fong, E. A. (2012). Nurse staffing is an important strategy to prevent medication errors in community hospitals. Nursing Economics, 30(5), 288-294