Medication Errors Discuss Gaps in Practice

GAPS IN PRACTICE

Discussion: Discuss Gaps in Practice

One of the most significant practice concerns in clinical settings happens to be medication errors. From the onset, it would be prudent to note that medication errors are described by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration – FDA (2019) as “any preventable event that may cause or lead to inappropriate medication use or patient harm while the medication is in the control of the healthcare professional, patient, or consumer.” The focus of this discussion front will be errors attributable to healthcare professionals. The negative impact of medication errors in as far as patient outcomes and wellbeing are concerned is well documented. For instance, as the FDA (2019) further indicates, medication errors could result in disability, life threatening situations, and even death. Towards this end, the relevance of deploying strategies to rein in this particular concern cannot be overstated.

In the past, there have been a few instances of medication errors in my facility. A recent assessment of the concern indicated that a huge percentage of the said errors is concentrated in drug prescription, followed closely by errors during drug dispensation. The issue is not specific to my facility. This is to say that available data indicates that the concern affects many other healthcare organizations across the country. Indeed, according to data availed in the year 2016, medication errors were identified as a leading cause of death in the country (John Hopkins Medicine, 2016). Abukhader and Abukhader (2020), on the other hand, refer to these errors as a patient safety iceberg. They are also restate the finding by Cohen (2007) to the effect that the said errors are a leading morbidity and mortality cause.

At present, this particular concern has not been comprehensively addressed by management at my facility. With this in mind, there is need to explore some of the approaches that could be embraced in efforts to address the issue. In so doing, there would be need to first be aware of the fact that “most of medical errors aren’t due to inherently bad doctors… most errors represent systemic problems, including poorly coordinated care, the absence or underuse of safety nets, and other protocols…” (John Hopkins Medicine, 2016). Thus, these are the factors that solutions to address the problem should focus on fixing. As a consequence, I would propose the implementation of a medication safety education program targeting the relevant healthcare professions within the facility. Past studies have indicated that successful deployment of a program of this nature does result in the enhancement of knowledge about the relevance of minimizing medical errors, as well as effective approaches to ensure that preventable failures in the treatment process are minimized. For instance, in one such study, it was found that “educational program on medication safety improves the knowledge of critical care nurses regarding intravenous medication errors” (Abukhader and Abukhader, 2020).

In the final analysis, it would also be prudent to note that in addition to the implementation of the medical safety education program as has been highlighted elsewhere in this text, there may be need to factor in a number of other considerations that are of equal relevance. For instance, in a study seeking to explore the most effective strategies to rein in medication errors, Gorgich, Barfoshan, Ghoreishi, and Yaghoobi (2016) indicate that increased workload happens to be a rather common cause of errors of this kind in healthcare settings. Towards this end, there may be need to address a myriad of other factors that have the potential to trigger medication errors, i.e. nurse workload.