Create a 2-4 page annotated bibliography and summary based on your research on best practices addressing one of the health care problems or issues in the Assessment Topic Areas media piece a health care organization faces that interests you.
Applying Research Skills-Medication Errors
Medication errors cause preventable effects that can harm the patient or even cause death. Medication errors are the leading causes of morbidity, mortality, hospital readmissions, increased care costs, and length of stay (Formica et al., 2018). Medication errors occur when a patient takes the wrong medication or uses an incorrect dose due to a combination of drugs without consulting with the health care professional, when medications are taken at a bad rate, and when medications are used past their expiration date. These medication errors can be caused by the healthcare professional or by mistakes from the patient.
As a registered nurse (RN), one of my main responsibilities is administering medications to patients. I ensure that they take the right medication, at the right dosage, at the right time. I have experienced several cases related to medication errors that led me to further my interest in understanding these cases and how to prevent them. For instance, once a nurse student was left unsupervised to give medications to in-patients in the pediatric wards. As she administered the medication to her third patient, her mother inquired about checking the medication. It was found that she was giving the wrong medication to the patient. Upon investigation, it was found that the last two patients had also received the wrong medication. The patients were given first aid and placed under observation. Fortunately, there were no adverse drug events reported. However, the student nurse was disciplined for the mistake, and the supervisor was suspended.
Identification of Academic Peer-Reviewed Literature and Search Criteria
I conducted a database search in PubMed Central and the Cochrane Library for scholarly peer-reviewed literature related to medication errors. The keywords used for the literature search include “medication administration,” “medication errors,” “medication safety,” and “medication error prevention.” Multiple search results were returned. I utilized the database’s advanced search options to filter the results using tools such as “publication date,” which was set for articles published between 2019 and 2022; “systematic reviews,” which returned systematic review articles on the search topic; and “publication type,” which was set for journals.
Assessment of the Credibility, Currency, and Relevance of the Journal Articles
For credibility and relevance of the articles to the topic, all articles selected were published in peer-reviewed journals. It was also confirmed that they provided facts based on research and statistics focusing on preventing medication errors. The author’s authority over the subject and topic was also accessed for each selected journal article. For journal currency, only articles published between 2019 and 2022 were selected.
Annotated Bibliography
Choi, Y. J., & Kim, H. (2019). Effect of pharmacy-led medication reconciliation in emergency departments: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of Clinical Pharmacy and Therapeutics, 44(6), 932–945. https://doi.org/10.1111/JCPT.13019
In this systematic review and meta-analysis, the authors aimed to investigate how pharmacy-led medication reconciliation impacted medication discrepancies and potential adverse drug events in the emergency department. The authors’ main objective was to assess the benefits of pharmacy services in preventing medication errors during medication reconciliation.
Eight articles were meta-analyzed. The major medication errors identified in the ED during medication reconciliation included medication omission, incorrect and omitted doses, and wrong dose frequencies. The authors found that pharmacy-led medication reconciliation reduced medication discrepancies by 68% compared to normal physician-led care. The authors also found that pharmacy-led medication reconciliation for patients with several comorbidities and those using numerous medications simultaneously had higher chances of reducing medication discrepancies than normal medication reconciliation. The authors concluded that pharmacy-led medication reconciliation could substantially reduce medication discrepancies and suggested further research. This article is relevant to me as it provides evidence of how the pharmacy department can be used to prevent medication errors.
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.