Good Research Paper On What Causes Medication Errors

The most important professional goal of the nursing profession is to provide quality health services and improve human health. Medication errors are the most common mistakes negatively affecting the care of patients and threatening the provision of health services. Medication errors may look harmless, but mistakes in the processes of prescription of drugs, dispensation and the administration of medications may injure a high number of individuals in many countries. Currently, such mistakes are now considered as a worldwide problem given that they increase the length of stay of patients in hospitals, increase the mortality rates and also the associated costs. Medication errors occur mainly as a result of poor communication between the healthcare providers, fatigue among the nurses and a patient’s lack of understanding of the instructions (Aspden, 5).
According to the National Coordinating Council for Medical Error Reporting and Prevention, medication error is defined as “any preventable event that may lead to or may cause inappropriate medication use or may cause patient harm (Cohen, 4).” The issue of medication errors has been with us for a very long time and has mainly been as a result of poor communication between the health providers and patients. According to a study by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the most common and fatal error related to medication, since the early 1990’s, relate to the administration of improper dose of medicine. The issuance of a wrong drug and the using the wrong route of administration also accounts to a high number of medication errors. The older generations are most vulnerable to such risks given the fact that they take multiple prescription medications. Medication errors relate to a number of issues including professional practice, healthcare products, prescription, and order communication, the nomenclature of the medical products, dispensation, administration and the use of the medicines among many others. It is estimated that close to 1.3 million people in the USA alone are injured by the so called medication errors. Medication errors can happen almost anywhere, from the doctor’s offices and health facilities to homes and senior living facilities.
The communication between the healthcare providers plays an important role in the prevention of many medical errors. But many a times, the miscommunication between them results in the poor prescription, dosage and administration of medicines. It has been reported that miscommunication accounts for close to 60% of all medical errors ever reported. Illegible handwriting by doctors, improper documentation and language barriers are some of the critical areas with regards to communication between the healthcare providers. All these critical areas may result in the wrong prescriptions, wrong dosages and wrong administration of these drugs. Inexperienced nurses and physicians also plays a role in this communication breakdown given that they may not be able to know the working of a different healthcare facility of lack the knowledge of the procedures. Another key contributor to medication errors is the use of sound-alike medical names and the use of abbreviations in the prescription of medicine. Many nurses may not be in a position to clearly identify the medicines prescribed for dispensing or clearly distinguish one medicine from another. As a result, a patient ends up being given the wrong medicine which is meant for a totally different ailment, which proves to be a fatal error. It should be noted that a failed communication and a lack of understanding between the physicians and the nurses could result to a fatal medical error. A breakdown in the communication process between the healthcare providers themselves and between them and the patients is the most common cause of medication errors.
Recent research findings have highlighted the role of fatigue among the caregivers in medication errors. Fatigue, stress and understaffing contribute highly to the problem of medication errors. Fatigues and deprivation of sleep has been found out to decrease vigilance among the nurses, information processing, memory, reaction time and decision making. When nurses work overtime or are overworked and lack the time to relax or even have a good night’s sleep, they are bound to have short term memory deficits. This may lead to omission errors and wrongful giving out of drugs. The issue of incorrect dosage and administration of the medication results in a high number of medication errors.
Medication errors are not predominantly the mistake by the healthcare providers but also that of the patients. Another common cause of medication errors is the lack of following the label instructions or the instructions by the healthcare providers by the patients. When a patient fails to follow instructions such as “shake well before use,” “do not crush medication” such as capsules and sublingual tablets should not be swallowed, a medication error is inevitable (Cohen, 12). The lack of a clear understanding of the instructions or a patient’s own misjudgment can prove fatal given the risks that the patients usually expose themselves to. On many occasions, patients do not seek the help or advice of healthcare specialists in the case of misunderstanding the use of a certain medication and this prompts them to use their own judgments and interpretations. This results in medication errors that may result in a lack of treatment of the disease in question, high medication costs and in worst cases death.
As it can be seen, both nurses and the patients play a role in medication errors. In as much as the medication errors are preventable, human error is solely responsible for a high number of such errors. Miscommunication among caregivers, fatigue among the nurses and a patient’s lack of knowledge and understanding of the drugs are the most common causes of medication errors. Medication errors are unfortunate events in the healthcare delivery system and steps should be taken to prevent their occurrences. Going forward, communication between caregivers should be greatly enhances to avoid hitches that may cause errors. Nurses should not be overworked and heath care facilities to ensure adequate nursing staff to avoid the issue of fatigue. Lastly, patient education should be carried out to ensure they follow and understand the instructions and the drugs they have been given. Such steps would go a long way in preventing medication errors.

Works Cited

Aspden, Philip. Preventing Medication Errors. Washington, DC: National Academies Press, 2007. Internet resource.
Cohen, Michael R. Medication Errors. Washington, D.C: American Pharmacists Association, 2007. Print.