NURS FPX 4000 Assessment 4 Analyzing a Current Healthcare Problem or Issue

Analyzing a Current Healthcare Problem or Issue

The healthcare problem highlighted in the previous assessment was a medication error that risks patient safety. This paper will further analyze this problem by using scholarly information and discussing the potential interventions while expanding upon the ethical principles.

Elements of the Issue

Medication errors are prevalent; it has been reported in a BMC journal by Shitu and others that in the US, there are about 1.5 million people harmed annually because of medication errors (Shitu et al., 2020). This journal and information were chosen as it highlights the issue’s prevalence. It also talks about the causes of medication errors that are mostly related to time, dose, and unauthorized drugs (Shitu et al., 2020). Even though medication errors are serious, they are still avoidable. A medication error is an incident where a wrong medication or dose is administered to the patient that could cause harm. This event is preventable.

There can be several aspects and causes of medication errors that have to be highlighted to gain a deeper analysis of the issue. The most common type of medication error is either due to incorrect medication or an incorrectly identified patient (Tariq et al., 2022). The other types of errors are due to incorrect time, improper dose, incorrect route of administration, compliance, and monitory errors (Tariq et al., 2022).

Analysis

Having the job of a medical transcriptionist, I must be aware of all the potential medication errors, ways to recognize them, and their causes. Patient safety should not be compromised as medication errors can turn out to be fatal for the patients. Any error in the transcription, confusion, or error must be reported to the administration or managers. As discussed before, a medication error is preventable. Several reviews have highlighted that preventing such errors relies on nurses’ adherence to the safety principles and ethical principles related to the patient (Vaismoradi et al., 2020). To improve patient outcomes, education must be provided to improve skills, reduce time pressure, improve patient-safety climate, improve encouragement, and improve communication between the healthcare staff and patients (Vaismoradi et al., 2020).

Even though most of the people taking medication are at risk for medication errors, the most vulnerable populations are children (ATrain Education, n.d.). It has been reported that around 200,000 children under 17 have to visit the emergency department (ED) due to adverse events. Most children visiting the ED are under five years old (ATrain Education, n.d.).

Most of the medication errors can be due to a system failure that could be poor professional communication, failure to obtain history related to allergies, inaccurate or unavailable patient information, inaccurate transcription, failure in tracking orders of medication, and lack of drug knowledge (Tariq et al., 2022). The failures related to the employee could be forgetfulness, illegible writing, carelessness, hurrying, negligence, and poor motivation (Tariq et al., 2022). These employee-related failures can be most related to poor workplace culture, high workload, lack of monitoring, lack of calculations, and inexperienced staff. Lack of communication is also a significant problem that can either be due to language barriers, lack of knowledge, and lack of understanding, or collect being able to address these failures can result in adverse events that can be life-threatening for the patients making them lose trust in the organization.

Potential Solutions

The potential solutions for medication errors can be implementing technology for safe medication administration, enhancing communication and collaboration with workshops, and providing training to the staff to increase accountability and knowledge regarding medication errors. The training and implementation of technology can help raise awareness regarding medication errors so they can be prevented to improve the quality of care. The consequences for ignoring the issue are either temporary sides effects like rashes or fatal effects that can harm the patient severely (Qlicksmart, 2020). The healthcare providers who are accountable for the error can suffer from depression, guilt, and shame, becoming a second victim of the event (Qlicksmart, 2020). Patients and family members can also file a lawsuit which could lead the organization to investigate and have heavy costs to be spent.

Implementation

A bar-code medication administration (BCMA) system can be implemented to safely administer the medications (Naidu & Alicia, 2019). This system scans the barcode on the medication and the barcode label on the patient’s information from the system or wrist to assess if the medication being administered is appropriate for the patient. It keeps in check with the patient’s history to ensure patient safety.

According to a study, BCMA has successfully reduced the medication error rate from 0.65 per 100,000 cases to 0.29 (Naidu & Alicia, 2019). This is a significant improvement as it ensures that the right drug is being administered to the right patient with the right dose and at the right time. It also reduces the workload of the nurses when it comes to manually prescribing medications.

Ethical Principles

There can be ethical implementation to the usage of BCMA as patient information can be stored on the system that has to be interpreted. The bar codes hold sensitive information, which can put the patient in a vulnerable position in case it is leaked or breached. It is important to maintain patient confidentiality by ensuring that the data stored is safe without any risks of breaches.

The Code of Ethics can also be followed by the American Nurse Association, which has four principles of beneficence, autonomy, nonmaleficence, and justice (Gaines, 2022). With the potential solution of BCMA, autonomy should be maintained even though the system is automated; patients should still be educated about the medication so they can have informed consent and a role in decision-making. This potential solution will also follow the rest of the principles of nonmaleficence, ensuring no harm is caused to the patient, and the principle of beneficence is to act good to the patients. It is essential to respect the patients and be empathetic to them, and no patient should be denied treatment or administration through BCMA to ensure justice.

Conclusion NURS FPX 4000 Assessment 4 Analyzing a Current Healthcare Problem or Issue

Patient safety is imperative for the reduction of medication errors. This is to promote a safety culture with accountability by implementing solutions that reduce the system’s failures. The solution being implemented should align with the ethical principles and standards. The potential solutions can be implementing technology like BCMA, training staff members, and workshops to enhance communication and collaboration.

References

ATrain Education. (n.d.). 5. Vulnerable Populations | ATrain Education . https://www.atrainceu.com/content/5-vulnerable-populations

Gaines, K. (2022). What is the Nursing Code of Ethics? Nurse.org. https://nurse.org/education/nursing-code-of-ethics/

Qlicksmart. (2020, October 27). Impact of Medication Errors on Patients, Healthcare Providers, and Hospitals . Qlicksmart – Sharps Safety Solutions for Surgical and Medical Professionals. https://www.qlicksmart.com/impact-medication-errors/

Naidu, M., & Alicia, Y. L. Y. (2019). Impact of Bar-Code Medication Administration and Electronic Medication Administration Record System in clinical practice for an effective medication administration process. Health , 11(05) , 511–526. https://doi.org/10.4236/health.2019.115044

Shitu, Z., Aung, M. M. T., Tuan Kamauzaman, T. H., & Ab Rahman, A. F. (2020). Prevalence and characteristics of medication errors at an emergency department of a teaching hospital in Malaysia. BMC Health Services Research , 20(1) . https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-020-4921-4

Tariq, R., Vashisht, R., Sinha, A., & Scherbak, Y. (2022). Medication Dispensing Errors And Prevention . StatPearls. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK519065/

Vaismoradi, M., Tella, S., Logan, P., Khakurel, J., & Vizacaya-Moreno, F. (2020). Nurses’ adherence to patient safety principles: A systematic review. Nurses’ Adherence to Patient Safety Principles: A Systematic Review . https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17062028