NR452 Capstone Course-Medication Errors In Healthcare

Introduction

One of the primary priorities of the Joint Commission is the reduction of medication errors in healthcare. However, medication errors remain one of the leading causes of mortalities in the United States. Hospitals are implementing policies and strategies and policies to reduce medication errors, but clearly, a lot still needs to be done. This essay will discuss medication errors in healthcare. It will further outline how this topic is related to the NCLEX-RN examination blueprint. In addition, it will discuss the importance of medication errors to professional practice, describe patients’ health, and discuss the negative effects of failure to resolve medication errors on patients and professional practice.

Furthermore, it will describe which patients are affected by medication errors, resources that can support evidence-based practice related to medication errors, and identify the interventions that can be used to minimize medication errors. It will also discuss the ethical and legal implications and the challenges that the intervention will face. Furthermore, it will discuss the participants in the change process and, finally, quality improvement related to medication errors. This topic is related to “Assurance of a safe and effective care environment” since medication errors affect patient safety and result in patient mortality and morbidity.  This NCLEX-RN ensures the protection of patients by healthcare professionals by implementing safety control mechanisms.

Importance

There are many prescription drugs and over-the-counter medications in the United States. In addition to this, there are other herbal medications and supplements. Due to this high number of drugs in the market, medication errors become unavoidable. Every year around 9000 patients succumb to medication errors (Tariq et al., 2020). More individuals experience medication-related adverse events, but they do not report them. Treating patients affected by medication errors costs the United States over $40 billion annually, with more than seven million patients affected (Tariq et al., 2020). In addition to these financial impacts, medication errors also cause physical and psychological pain to patients, decreased patient satisfaction, and growing mistrust in the healthcare delivery industry.

Common causes of medication errors include illegible handwriting, inefficient communication, confusion over products with similar packaging, and wrong drug selection (Tariq et al., 2020). Medication errors can occur due to human errors but mainly due to flawed systems that cannot detect errors (Tariq et al., 2020). Failure to implement strategies to minimize medication errors will result in negative patient outcomes, increased cost of healthcare services, decreased patient satisfaction, and patient mortality. Failure to implement strategies to minimize these errors can impact professional practice since nurses who make errors can be emotionally traumatized, which can lower their confidence and self-esteem (Chu, 2016). They can become guilty, fearful, embarrassed, and depressed for violating patient trust. In addition, they experience moral distress leading to job dissatisfaction.

Healthcare Disparities, Inequalities, and Interventions

Adverse drug events related to medication errors are many in hospital settings. There are three high-risk categories likely to be more affected by medication errors. They include children under five years who require dose adjustments, elderly individuals with chronic conditions, and ICU patients vulnerable to fatal consequences (Escrivá Gracia et al., 2019). Evidence-based practice is important in implementing any healthcare solution. Healthcare professionals can use many sources of information to implement EBP practices to minimize medication errors. They can access this information from the websites of organizations such as the CDC, the FDA, and the Joint Commission.  In addition, they can retrieve scholarly articles from databases such as PubMed, and Cochrane Library. Medline and CINAHL, which have articles related to healthcare.

There are many disparities in healthcare, and medication errors are one of them. Studies have shown that women are more likely to be prescribed antibiotics with a greater probability of receiving inappropriate prescriptions (Piccardi et al., 2018). Race is also an issue, with blacks more likely to suffer medication errors compared to whites. In addition, individuals of low socioeconomic status are more likely to receive inappropriate prescriptions than wealthy individuals (Piccardi et al., 2018). Evidence-based solution for solving healthcare disparities related to medication is implementing culturally competent care. Cultural competence is the ability of healthcare delivery to serve diverse patients a