NHS-FPX 4000 Assessment 3 Analyzing a Current Health Care Problem or Issue

NHS-FPX 4000 Assessment 3 Analyzing a Current Health Care Problem or Issue

Potential Solutions

A number of interventions can be adopted to address the issue of medication errors. One of the strategies recommended by Gorgich et al., (2016) in their study is easing the workplace pressure by hiring more providers of care. Increasing the workforce would lower the workload and the risk of healthcare providers providing unsafe care to the patients. Technology can also be incorporated into healthcare to manage and prevent medication errors in healthcare. For example, the use of electronic health records can enable the detection of overdose and under dose of medical prescriptions, hence, minimizing the risk of medication errors (Santos et al., 2019). The use of bar code and automated systems for dispensing medications also promise to reduce the risk of medication errors in health. These technologies keep an accurate drug inventory and coding of medications to minimize the risk of dispensing errors by healthcare providers (Godshall & Riehl, 2018). Training healthcare providers on medication safety is also an effective approach to preventing and reducing rates of medication errors. Training equips the healthcare providers with knowledge and skills needed for safe use of medications. Prior to training, needs assessment should be performed to determine the critical needs of the providers to aid the development of the training program (Di Simone et al., 2016). The resources that are needed for the above solutions to be implemented include institutional support, technology adoption, and continuous monitoring from the management.

Research articles and research is extremely significant in the nursing field and practice as a whole. Nurses work directly with patients on a daily basis and because of this, they are the most aware of the needs of the patient. They are also the most informed about what procedures and policies favor the quality of patient care given and what needs to be adjusted to better cater to their needs. Rigorous research is extremely important for nursing students and nurses to keep up with at every stage of their career. This is because it advances nursing practice like aiding in the shaping of healthcare policy which leads to overall advancements in health all around the globe not just within the United States. For example, the National Institute of Nursing Research is dedicated to finding new knowledge on disease prevention, disability, illness symptom management, and improvement of end-of-life care (“Importance of research in Nursing: UNCW online,” 2016). In terms of the application of research in the modern world, the importance of research can be seen with the occurrence of the pandemic of COVID-19. The world experienced a complete lockdown and incredible spike of deaths in the past two years due to a virus that has no cure and still does not hold a cure rather than a vaccine that aims to slow and decrease the spread and prevalence of the disease. It is due to research that a vaccine could be created and that nurses and other medical professionals found out what treatment methods and care plans work best to treat this disease.

The proposed intervention that should be utilized to address the issue of medication errors is training healthcare providers. Healthcare providers should be trained on safe medication practices. They should also be trained on the importance of speaking up if a medication error occurs (Di Simone et al., 2016). Training is associated with advantages that include sustained behavioral change from the healthcare providers. However, it might be costly for health organizations to train all their healthcare providers. ineffective use of data from needs assessment might also lead to the training failing to address the critical needs of the patients. The potential consequences of ignoring the issue of medication errors include high morbidity and mortality rates, increased costs of healthcare, and ineffective realization of safety and quality targets in health.

Ethical Implications if a Potential Solution was Implemented

The above section proposed the provision of training opportunities to healthcare providers on medication safety. The implementation of the proposal is associated with a number of ethical issues. One of them is behavioral transformation. The providers will embrace behaviors that strengthen safety and quality in medication administration. The implementation of the solution will also result in the improvement in the quality of care. Training providers on medication safety creates organizational culture that prioritizes safety needs of the patients.  Healthcare providers incorporate safety practices into their routine, leading to safety in medication administration. One of the benefits of implementing the proposed solution from an ethical point of view is promotion of public safety and trust towards care given in an organization. A reduction and prevention of medication errors will translate into the enhanced quality and safety of care, hence, patient outcomes (Di Simone et al., 2016). The implementation of the solution however is associated with the ethical disadvantage of causing financial harm to the organization. Providing training to providers require a significant use of financial resources to acquire the needed training materials and technologies for use. Therefore, health organizations have to weigh between the financial gains and risks of providing training to providers on medication safety. The requirements for implementing the solution include expert trainers, incentives for healthcare providers, training materials, and technologies for medication administration.

Conclusion

Medication errors have significant adverse outcomes to patients and health organizations. Medication errors increase the risk of harm to patients. The harm increase hospital stay and costs incurred by patients in seeking additional care due to harms from the errors. Health organizations also incur extra costs in providing care to patients affected by medication errors. Medication errors arise from factors that include high workload, ineffective communication among healthcare providers and wrong calculation of medication dosages. A number of interventions can be utilized to address the issue of medication errors in health. The interventions include provider training, use of technology and increasing workforce to reduce workload and burnout among healthcare providers. The proposed intervention for use in this research paper is the provision of medication safety training to the healthcare providers. The training will equip them with the knowledge and skills on safe use of medications, hence, minimizing behaviors that increase the risk of errors in practice. Through this intervention, the desired culture of medication safety will be created in the organization.

References

Assiri, G. A., Shebl, N. A., Mahmoud, M. A., Aloudah, N., Grant, E., Aljadhey, H., & Sheikh, A. (2018). What is the epidemiology of medication errors, error-related adverse events and risk factors for errors in adults managed in community care contexts? A systematic review of the international literature. BMJ Open, 8(5), e019101. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2017-019101

Di Simone, E., Tartaglini, D., Fiorini, S., Petriglieri, S., Plocco, C., & Di Muzio, M. (2016). Medication errors in intensive care units: Nurses’ training needs. Emergency Nurse, 24(4).

Godshall, M., & Riehl, M. (2018). Preventing medication errors in the information age. Nursing2020, 48(9), 56–58. https://doi.org/10.1097/01.NURSE.0000544230.51598.38

Gorgich, E. A. C., Barfroshan, S., Ghoreishi, G., & Yaghoobi, M. (2016). Investigating the Causes of Medication Errors and Strategies to Prevention of Them from Nurses and Nursing Student Viewpoint. Global Journal of Health Science, 8(8), 220–227. https://doi.org/10.5539/gjhs.v8n8p220

Izadpanah, F., Nikfar, S., Bakhshi Imcheh, F., Amini, M., & Zargaran, M. (2018). Assessment of Frequency and Causes of Medication Errors in Pediatrics and Emergency Wards of Teaching Hospitals Affiliated to Tehran University of Medical Sciences (24 Hospitals). Journal of Medicine and Life, 11(4), 299–305. https://doi.org/10.25122/jml-2018-0046

Krzyzaniak, N., & Bajorek, B. (2016). Medication safety in neonatal care: A review of medication errors among neonates. Therapeutic Advances in Drug Safety, 7(3), 102–119. https://doi.org/10.1177/2042098616642231

Piroozi, B., Mohamadi-Bolbanabad, A., Safari, H., Amerzadeh, M., Moradi, G., Usefi, D., Azadnia, A., & Gray, S. (2019). Frequency and potential causes of medication errors from nurses’ viewpoint in hospitals affiliated to a medical sciences University in Iran. International Journal of Human Rights in Healthcare, 12(4), 267–275. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJHRH-11-2018-0072

Santos, H. D. P. d, Ulbrich, A. H. D. P. S., Woloszyn, V., & Vieira, R. (2019). DDC-Outlier: Preventing Medication Errors Using Unsupervised Learning. IEEE Journal of Biomedical and Health Informatics, 23(2), 874–881. https://doi.org/10.1109/JBHI.2018.2828028

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), 56. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-020-4921-4

Stewart, D., Thomas, B., MacLure, K., Pallivalapila, A., Kassem, W. E., Awaisu, A., McLay, J. S., Wilbur, K., Wilby, K., Ryan, C., Dijkstra, A., Singh, R., & Hail, M. A. (2018). Perspectives of healthcare professionals in Qatar on causes of medication errors: A mixed methods study of safety culture. PLOS ONE, 13(9), e0204801. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0204801