Identifying Opportunities to Reduce Medication Error Rates by Nursing Staff Today, one of the most challenging problems facing nurses practicing in any setting, but most especially tertiary healthcare facilities, is the adverse drug reactions caused by medication errors. Although medication errors can occur at numerous stages of care during hospitalization and outpatient follow-up, nurses are on the front lines in preventing these errors (Da Silva & Krishnamurthy, 2016). This is an important issue because the human and economic costs that are associated with medication errors are staggering, with current estimates indicating that these errors affect more than 7 million patients, cost nearly $21 billion and cause more than one million emergency room visits and three-and-a-half million visits to doctors’ offices each year (Da Silva & Krishnamurthy, 2016). The purpose of this paper is to provide a timely discussion concerning the role of quality and safety in nursing science as they apply to the prevention of medication errors. To this end, a definition of quality and safety measures for medication errors an assessment of their relationship and role in nursing science today are followed by a contemporary example of how quality and safety measures for mediation errors are applied in nursing science. Finally, an identification of the quality and components needed to analyze a health care program's outcomes with respect to medication errors is followed by a summary of the research and key findings concerning this nursing science issue in the conclusion.

Definition of quality and safety measures for medication errors and their relationship and role in nursing science today

A strict definition of quality and safety is zero tolerance for medication errors from the pharmacy to the patient. Although this level of acceptance may appear unrealistic given the human factors that are involved during each of the...

Current estimates indicate that at least 30% of inpatients experience at least one medication discrepancy upon discharge, but many authorities believe that the rate is much higher (Da Silva & Krishnamurthy, 2016). What is known for certain is that, “Medication related incidents and errors continue to be a significant patient safety issue in health care settings internationally and despite decades of research and quality improvement initiatives, we have failed to identify innovative and sustainable solutions” (Hayes & Power, 2014, p. 3). Given the persistently high rate of medication errors and adverse drug reactions that continue to diminish the quality of care and patient safety,
The adverse drug reactions caused by medication errors include various harmful side effects and allergic reactions that can be fatal (Medication safety basics, 2018). Current estimates indicate that:

· The vast majority (82%) of American adults take at least one medication and 29 percent take five or more;

· Adverse drug reactions cause approximately 1.3 million emergency department visits and 350,000 hospitalizations each year;

· $3.5 billion is spent on excess medical costs of adverse drug reactions annually;

· More than 40% of costs related to ambulatory (non-hospital) adverse drug reactions might be preventable;

The numbers of adverse drug events is likely to grow due to:

· Development of new medicines;

· Discovery of new uses for older medicines;

· Aging American population;

· Increased use of medicines for disease treatment and prevention; and,

· Expansion of insurance coverage for…