Medication Errors (Annotated Bibliography Sample)

Improvement Plan Tool Kit Name Capella University NURS-FPX4020: Improving Quality of Care and Patient Safety Lecturer Date Improvement Plan Tool Kit Medication errors threaten the safety and economic progress of medical facilities and patients. For example, community members stay longer in medical wards because of medication errors. As such, medication errors heighten affected individuals’ medical spending. Besides, community members suffer from depression, anxiety, trauma, and psychological distress when exposed to severe medication errors. Medical facilities also lose patient trust because of medication errors. As such, medication errors affect patient turnout within medical facilities. Medication errors also hinder medical facilities from retaining and attracting talented workers to improve individuals’ quality of life by delivering safe healthcare services. However, medical facilities embrace technology, safety cultures, teamwork, training programs, and reporting systems to eradicate factors causing errors during treatment sessions. They include inadequate staffing, poor communication, limited reporting, and burnout. This improvement toolkit researches and evaluates scholarly materials to acknowledge the causes, impacts, types, and interventions for medication errors. Types of Errors Assunção-Costa, L., Costa de Sousa, I., Alves de Oliveira, M. R., Ribeiro Pinto, C., Machado, J. F. F., Valli, C. G., & de Souza, L. E. P. F. (2022). Drug administration errors in Latin America: A systematic review. Plos One, 17(8). https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9352042/ The journal analyzed previous educational materials from credible medical databases to analyze the types of errors recorded within medical organizations. The journal found that delayed medications, omission, and incorrect dosages are the common medication errors harming patients during treatment sessions. According to the article, omission errors occur when medical caregivers forget to administer prescribed medications. As such, the article contends that omission errors lead to incomplete medication dosages among patients during treatment sessions. The journal also maintains that delayed medication happens when healthcare practitioners dispense prescribed medications within the wrong timelines. This way, the article notes that delayed medications heighten patients’ recovery timelines, expose patients to severe healthcare complications, and cause high readmission rates of patients within medical facilities. The article also acknowledges that delayed medications lead to high death rates of affected patients. Likewise, the journal found that dosage errors contribute to high admission, readmission, death, and prolonged patient hospitalizations within medical organizations. Based on the article, dosage errors occur when medical providers dispense high or lower quantities of prescribed medications during treatment sessions. Thus, the journal posits that dosage errors expose patients to chronic healthcare complications, severe injuries, and disability. However, the article recommends medical facilities educate and train healthcare workers to improve their medication knowledge. The article asserts that adequate training lowers delayed medication, dosage, and omission errors within medical organizations. Therefore, this journal’s data can help medical organizations, policymakers, and healthcare givers design effective interventions to mitigate the omission, delayed medication, and dosage errors during treatment sessions. Eslami, K., Aletayeb, F., Aletayeb, S. M. H., Kouti, L., & Hardani, A. K. (2019). Identifying medication errors in neonatal intensive care units: a two-center study. BMC Pediatrics, 19(1), 1-7. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12887-019-1748-4 The journal employed a descriptive cross-sectional study to identify the types of medication errors within neonatal intensive care units. The journal discovered that omission, dosage, and prescription errors are medication errors recorded at neonatal intensive care units. The journal’s findings indicate that 47 percent of neonatal intensive care unit medication errors result from wrong prescriptions. The article contends that inexperienced medical workers, heavy workloads, and limited digital devices contribute to prescription errors within neonatal intensive care units. As such, the article suggests that healthcare organizations train neonatal caregivers, implement digital devices, and hire more workers to alleviate the high prescription error rates. The journal also found that wrong medication dosages account for 51.5 percent of medication errors in neonatal intensive care units. According to the article, neonatal caregivers administer the wrong medication dosages because of miscommunications and prolonged working hours. Hence, the journal requires neonatal healthcare facilities to adopt digital devices and design flexible working hours to avoid medication dosage errors. The journal also acknowledges that 29 percent of medication errors within neonatal intensive care units result from omission errors. The article maintains that many medical workers forget to dispense medications because of understaffing and high work overloads. The journal asserts that understaffing and heavy workloads distract neonatal nurses; hence, they forget to administer medications during treatment sessions. Thus, the article suggests neonatal medical facilities hire more workers and adopt digital devices to lessen the heavy workload leading to high omission errors during treatment sessions. Therefore, this article offers accurate and relevant information for neonatal medical organizations and caregivers to protect patients against omission, dosage, and prescription errors during treatment sessions. Aldossary, D. N., Almandeel, H. K., Alzahrani, J. H., & Alrashidi, H. O. (2022). Assessment of medication errors among anesthesia clinicians in Saudi Arabia: a cross-sectional survey study. Global Journal on Quality and Safety in Healthcare, 5(1), 1-9. https://doi.org/10.36401/JQSH-21-9 The journal employed a cross-sectional web-based survey study to assess the types of medication errors committed by anesthesia clinicians. The journal notes that wrong medication routes, incorrect dosages, drug omissions, and wrong medications are the types of medication errors recorded within medical facilities. The article found that heavy workloads and distractions due to prolonged working hours make clinicians forget to administer medications during treatment sessions. This way, the article claims that drug omission errors prolong patient hospitalization within medical facilities. The article also affirms that omission errors expose patients to undesirable healthcare consequences. Likewise, the article claims medication dosage errors make patients stay longer in healthcare wards. The article confirms prolonged hospitalization because of dosage errors increases patients’ healthcare budget. In addition, the journal admits that patients become disabled when medical workers dispense incorrect dosages of medications during treatment sessions. Becoming blind or losing body parts due to severe medication errors exposes patients to chronic mental health disorders. The journal also attributes wrong medications to poor documentation of patient information and miscommunication among medical workers during treatment sessions. The article argues that medical workers administer the wrong medication to patients because of inadequate information. The article also stresses that dispensing drugs through undesirable routes makes it hard for patients to achieve desired healthcare results. Hence, the article debates that wrong drug administration routes prolong patient stay within medical organizations. Clinicians, medical organizations, and policymakers can use this article to implement effective interventions to eradicate errors related to wrong medication routes, incorrect dosages, drug omissions, and wrong medications. Factors Contributing to Errors within Medical Organizations Savva, G., Papastavrou, E., Charalambous, A., Vryonides, S., & Merkouris, A. (2022). Exploring nurses’ perceptions of medication error risk factors: findings from a sequential qualitative study. Global Qualitative Nursing Research, 9(1). https://doi.org/10.1177/23333936221094857 The journal employed a qualitative study to evaluate the sources of errors during treatment sessions. The article found that poor communication, inadequate training, inexperience, and heavy workloads lead to high medication error rates within healthcare organizations. The article attributes medication dosage errors to inadequate communication among medical providers during shift handovers. The article also maintains that healthcare practitioners document incorrect patient information during treatment sessions because of poor communication. Based on the article, incorrect patient data contribute to high rates of medication errors within medical facilities. In addition, the article discovered that inexperienced doctors or nurses dispense medications using the wrong route. The article argues that wrong administration routes expose patients to severe errors, which leads to prolonged hospital stays, death, disability, or injury. The article also stresses that inexperienced medical workers misinterpret medical instructions. This way, inexperienced workers dispense the wrong medication dosages during treatment sessions. Likewise, the article confirms that medical workers commit omission errors when overworked. The article’s findings show that heavy workloads cause distractions and memory lapses among medical workers. Hence, the article contends that distractions and poor cognitive functioning due to heavy workloads make healthcare workers forget to administer drugs during treatment sessions. The article further states that heavy workloads expose nurses, physicians, and p...