Papers on "Preventing Medication Errors" and similar term paper topics

Paper #069195 :: Preventing Medication Errors
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A discussion on fatal errors in hospitals and how they can be avoided.

Written in 2006; 1,237 words; 4 sources; MLA; $ 42.95

Paper Summary:

This paper examines the prevention of medication errors in the healthcare environment, particularly with elderly individuals and older adults who may need help in taking their medication in a hospital setting and where medication errors are perhaps more serious. It details the many things that hospitals can do to reduce the likelihood of medication mistakes by staff members and analyzes how practical and successful these methods are.

From the Paper:

"In terms of analysis of this issue, there are many things that hospitals can do to reduce the likelihood of medication mistakes by staff members whether they are physicians, nurses, or other healthcare professionals. First of all as mentioned the healthcare provider can provide education on a continuous basis to its employees. Many people after they get out of nursing school don't remember all of the complicated drug interactions and medication interactions which are constantly changing as well. So displaying these in an easy to read chart format predominantly in the hospital can keep the information easily at hand to reduce errors. Also as mentioned there is the technique of color coding or bar coding medications and patients, to separate them from each other and to make the medications match being the predominant issue here. These are systems which have advanced far beyond traditional color coding and gone to a bar code system which is registered in a networked computing environment system. "All meds have a bar code on them, and the patient ID band also has one," Sublett says. "We have an online system, and when a nurse pulls up the screen, it highlights the meds to give. Then you scan all the meds, and if one is wrong, the system alerts you. If it is all right, you scan the bracelet and get an immediate warning if it's not the right patient" (Bar, 2005). It is assumed that even if some nurses use dubious methods of getting through school because they don't know what is going on, once out in the field they are quickly going to be found incompetent if they can't do something like scanning a bracelet right and matching patient medication. However, as mentioned, human error seems to be ultimately a variable that cannot be left out of any equation, in many cases even due to administrative oversight.

Tags: healthcare mistakes

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