Safety Risks

Safety Risks

Jon Thomas

Rasmussen College

Author note:

This assignment is being submitted for Loretta Kaniok’s NUR2407 Pharmacology class.

Safety Risks

When it comes to safety in health care, it should always be a number one priority, especially client safety. Creating and maintaining a safe environment is one of the top concerns in nursing, and sometimes it can be a real challenge, especially when things get chaotic in the unit. When the setting tends to get frenzied, errors in medication handling and some can be fatal, but prevented.

During preparation and administration of medications, a culture and environment of safety should be embraced by knowledgeable employees about the medications being administered and have the initiative to look things up when they are unsure about any information about them. They also have to be focused and attentive especially in determining high-risk situations.

Probably the most common breach in medication administration is the medication administration error itself. One specific example is when a nurse gives the wrong medication to a client, to the wrong client, or worse yet… both! There are safeguards put in place to avoid this type of error from happening. The first thing is to triple check the medication when drawing it from the pharmacy for the correct dosage, route and the correct drug itself. When entering the client’s room, introduce yourself and announce what you are there to do, then ask the client to tell you what their full name and date of birth is. Verify that information against their chart and then the medication against the MAR. These simple checks take minimal time to perform and can save time, paperwork, licenses and most of all, lives!

Documentation is also one of the essential things to ensure that proper health care was provided. Many factors can lead to errors in documenting medication administration. One element is getting distracted. When a nurse is in with a client, they are your priority as long as you are providing care for them. You owe them that. Another way of failing to document correctly is failing to check the client’s mouth if they have already swallowed the pill and then proceeding to record the medication administration. If a client decides to spit out the tablet for some reason and the nurse documented that the client took it, not only did the nurse fail to administer the medication but also was unsuccessful in the documentation process as well. The last factor is technical errors. Computers and electronic networks are man-made machines and therefore, will go down now and then (usually at the most inopportune time)! If the nurse is in the course of recording the medication administration and the system or network abruptly shuts down, while waiting for repairs to happen, there is a risk of forgetting details about what occurred during the care session. As a nurse, paper and pen should always be available in case of such an emergency. Keeping these factors in mind can help healthcare workers be better prepared and should they ever find themselves in any of the predicaments mentioned above.

Medication errors have been happening in healthcare settings since organized health care has been around, but can be significantly reduced with a little education, a dash of attention and an ounce or two of prevention. Staying focused and attentive, and seeking help if you don’t know how or what to do certain things and avoiding distractions as much as possible.

Reference

The National Academies of Sciences Engineering Medicine. (2004). Keeping Patients Safe: Transforming the Work Environment of Nurses. Retrieved from https://www.nap.edu/read/10851/chapter/9#287