Role of a Nurse in Preventing Medication Errors

Medication errors are some of the critical safety issues in healthcare. Nursing professionals play an important role in promoting patient safety and quality care. Individualized care for patients should prevent suffering by eliminating risks. Furthermore, nurses are the first-line professionals in healthcare with competencies and skills to improve safety based on the appropriate practices. By looking at the underlying factors influencing medication errors and approaches to prevent errors, nurses can improve patient safety.  The root causes, organizational factors, and technology can be evaluated to inform the best nursing strategies for managing medication errors. This paper will evaluate medication errors and the role of nurses in improving patient safety.

Medication Errors in Healthcare

Medication errors involve malpractices that occur during medication administration. The main treatment for health issues, for example, type 2 diabetes mellitus, is medication. Medication administration is one of the main tasks in healthcare. However, healthcare professionals, including nurses, fail to administer the correct medication or the appropriate dose to a patient. A wrong medication administered to a patient may not treat the disease or expose a patient to harm (Tabatabaee et al., 2022). Kidney and liver damage is possible if medication is administered in higher doses as opposed to the recommended dose. If a patient develops organ damage after a medication error, he/she is more likely to require additional interventions, which increases the cost of healthcare.

Proper access to affordable healthcare is a priority for healthcare stakeholders. However, medication errors that cause long-term complications require additional resources to accommodate the affected population. The increasing cost of healthcare as a result of safety issues affects the normal funding of healthcare facilities (Ranasinghe et al., 2024). Health insurance providers are exposed to financial risks when dealing with reimbursements for medication error-related complications. Moreover, healthcare facilities with frequent incidences of medical malpractice have challenges in attracting more clients. Therefore, addressing medication malpractices is critical for healthcare stakeholders.

Root-Causes

There are different factors that cause medication malpractices in healthcare. Poor documentation is a contributing factor when nurses and the interdisciplinary team are recording patient details. Written records contain the patient demographics, diagnoses, and treatment guidelines. A lack of clear documentation or wrong data entry, for example, patient data without the correct medication to be administered, is linked to the mixing of medication (Neugebauer et al., 2021). This is because a nurse can only administer the correct drug if the recorded patient data indicates the appropriate medication. As such, inaccurate data prevents compliance with medication orders in healthcare. A comprehensive data recording among nurses during care delivery is important to prevent errors related to documentation. Registered nurses should recognize the need for accurate patient information, including medication, to improve adherence to safety practices.

The heavy workload for registered nurses influences burnout in the workplace. The fatigue caused by heavy workloads affects the level of adherence to medication guidelines among nursing staff. The increased demand for healthcare with the current shortage of nursing staff contributes to a heavy workload for the available nursing professionals (Neugebauer et al., 2021). The resulting outcome is exhaustion in the workplace, which causes medication errors. In this context, nurses can pay attention to patient needs and medication orders when physically and psychologically stable. Therefore, fatigue during patient care influences non-compliance with drug management among healthcare staff. An effective work schedule for registered nurses based on patient needs and proper planning by nurse leaders can address workload issues and burnout to prevent medication malpractice. Nurse managers are actively involved in creating work schedules and promoting better working conditions; as such, the professionals should manage workload challenges to improve patient safety.

Additionally, the use of abbreviations for drugs is a concern that influences wrong medication or dose administration. The physician medication orders are generated for each patient to be used by the nurse. Medication abbreviations are commonly used for prescriptions based on accepted practices. Nurses, on the other hand, may lack adequate knowledge about medication abbreviations, which is partly linked to a lack of effective training (Neugebauer et al., 2021). One of the main reasons for effective training is to promote nursing competencies. This gives nurses the right skills to handle tasks, including medication management. As such, nurses without the skills to interpret medication abbreviations are more likely to commit medical malpractices, such as administering the wrong medication to a patient during practice. By providing quality training to nurses on medication guidelines and abbreviations, nurses can be well-equipped to deal with medication errors during care delivery.

Organizational Factors

The healthcare environment has different factors that influence patient safety issues. Poor communication between the interdisciplinary team causes medication errors. Patient medication orders require input from the physician, pharmacist, and the registered nurse. Interdisciplinary communication that promotes accurate and real-time information sharing is important in enhancing patient safety (Aghighi et al., 2022). However, healthcare organizations have failed to implement measures that support information sharing between the interdisciplinary. If an effective communication channel is implemented and shared with the interdisciplinary team, then it will become easy for the team to share data such as patient medication doses to enhance safety. Furthermore, proper communication gives nurses a perfect approach to seeking clarifications from the physicians if the recorded information is unclear to reduce errors when administering medication. Nurse leaders are in a better position to support the development and implementation of communication channels in practice.

Patient safety in a healthcare organization is influenced by an existing culture called patient safety culture. Healthcare staff can provide safe care by promoting compliance with treatment practices based on existing values. The organizational guidelines for shared decision-making and teamwork enhance patient safety (Aghighi et al., 2022). These guidelines are poorly established in healthcare facilities, which contribute to medication errors. This is because the existing practices, including staff collaboration in planning for treatment, help the team to evaluate patient needs and double-check medication orders; for example, registered nurses can engage the physician in decision-making for medication doses if the working environment has an entrenched safety culture (Aghighi et al., 2022). In this case, nurses must recognize the need for a shared vision to cultivate a safety culture in the organization. Proper engagement of the team in medication assessment and decisions for drug management improves patient safety by preventing serious omissions.

Technology

Health information technology is a critical resource to improve care delivery. Data recording and sharing in healthcare using technology is key in supporting safety. Healthcare facilities that lack appropriate technologies, such as the electronic health record system, fail to create a supportive environment for safe medication administration. The electronic health record allows the healthcare teams to store, retrieve, and share information for decision-making (Devin et al., 2020). Furthermore, patient data, such as treatment plans, are important in decisions for medication management in healthcare. By retrieving data in the electronic system, nurses can easily evaluate the appropriate treatment for the patient, including the type of medication, which prevents medication errors. Nursing professionals can support the implementation and use of current technologies to improve patient safety. Moreover, nursing professionals can engage the organization leaders to implement the electronic barcode medication administration system. The system is beneficial in supporting medication verification in practice to prevent errors.

Additionally, medication errors after patient discharge occur as a result of ineffective support and follow-up. Chronic diseases such as type 2 diabetes mellitus require management using prescribed drugs. Patients with chronic illnesses fail to take medication based on recommended guidelines, for example, the correct dose, which influences harmful outcomes. In this case, healthcare technology systems support patient follow-up after discharge, such as a telephone follow-up system (Devin et al., 2020). This approach allows nurses to provide individualized education and support to patients to prevent omissions.

Conclusion

The paper outlines the underlying causes of medication errors in healthcare, the organizational issues and technological factors related to patient safety, and how nurses can address the issue. From the comprehensive assessment based on root causes and technological systems, it is evident that nurses can integrate different approaches to improve patient safety. An effective work schedule, nurse training, and the use of technology to support data-driven decisions during medication administration are important in addressing medication errors in healthcare. All these strategies require active participation and input from nurses.

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