For this assessment, you will develop a 3-5 page paper examining a safety quality issue concerning medication administration in a health care setting. You will analyze the problem and discuss potential evidence-based and best-practice solutions from the literature and the role of nurses and other stakeholders in addressing the issue.
Enhancing Quality and Safety
Medication administration errors (MAEs) remain an issue of concern within hospitals and the entire healthcare delivery system. These types of errors can occur during the medication administration process. Medication administration errors can occur as instances of a medication overdose, wrong time of administration, bad point and route of administration, wrong patient, and medication administration at the incorrect rate. Medication overdose is a familiar MAE that is contributed mainly by other MAEs. MAEs, such as medication overdose, are a risk to the quality of care and safety of the patient. This paper will focus on the factors leading to medication overdose, evidence-based solutions for medication administration errors, the roles of nurses in care coordination for patient safety and quality enhancement, and the necessary stakeholders to enhance quality and safety during medication administration.
Factors Leading to Medication Administration Errors
The process of medication involves several various individuals and processes that, at a point, may lead to the occurrence of errors such as medication overdose in the process of administration. As nurses are more involved in the direct delivery of healthcare services, they are more likely to be involved in most errors occurring during medication administration within healthcare settings. However, they are not the only individuals who lead to the occurrence of the errors. Medication administration errors can result from human, system, and organizational failures. According to Keers et al. (2018), medication administration errors result from multiple interrelated factors such as system failures, work environment, medications used, and the complexity of tasks within clinical practice. Besides these, there are various interacting systems and human factors that contribute to errors in medication administration. For instance, nurses may cause administration errors due to human and organizational factors, such as insufficient workforce leading to increased workloads and burnouts, administering the wrong dose, or wrong patient due to neglect or miscommunication with the prescribing officer.
Evidence-Based and Best-Practice Solutions for Medication Administration and Reducing Costs
Resolving errors in medication administration and reducing costs should focus on fixing the contributing factors to the occurrence of the errors. A study by Cho and Choi (2018) concluded that teamwork, leadership, and continuous learning in nursing improved a nurse’s competencies toward patient safety. However, the relationship between the nurse’s attitudes toward a patient, safety skills, and knowledge varies among nurses (Cho & Choi, 2018). Nurses and healthcare workers should learn how to incorporate evidence from research, their expertise in healthcare, and patient-centeredness into their practices for care quality, safety, and individual and organizational performance improvement (Sonğur et al., 2018). To achieve these, Altmiller and Hopkins-Pepe (2019) recommend implementing the Quality and Safety Education for Nurses (QSEN) skills in practice to assist healthcare organizations in meeting the quality and safety education in nursing requirements. QSEN competencies include teamwork and collaboration, patient-centered care, implementation of EBP, development of quality implementation skills, nursing informatics in practice, and patient safety. These competencies can be considered within the nursing curriculum to improve the competencies of nurses in academia (Andtmiller & Hopkins-Pepe, 2019).
The Role of Nurses in Care Coordinate to Enhance Quality and Safety and Reduce Costs
Nurses are in the frontline during care delivery and are the leading contributors to medication administration errors. They also have a role in coordinating care to ensure better and safer care. There are various ways a nurse can coordinate the delivery of medical care. Nurses can coordinate care by sharing information on patient health and medications already administered to facilitate care transition. In addition, this also includes educating patients and their caregivers during discharge to facilitate the continuity of care after the transition. Additionally, nurses can coordinate care by collaborating with other healthcare providers in order to facilitate communication and the development of patient-centered care.