Medication Administration Errors and Why Nurses Fail to Report Them: A Critique of A Qualitative Article (Essay Sample)

Qualitative Research Critical Appraisal
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Medication Administration Errors and Why Nurses Fail to Report Them: A Critique of A Qualitative Article
Introduction
Medical administration errors, commonly known as MAE, can be defined as the difference in what a patient receives as a medication instead of the prescriber's intentions for the original order. MAE serves as one of the critical risks in the nursing field and mainly occurs due to discrepancies between the drug therapy and the drug receiver. The research paper by Hammoudi, Ismaile & Yahya (2018) explores the different factors relating to medication errors and why nurse practitioners may fail to report them. The research utilizes a qualitative approach and provides a practical analysis of the various factors that the nurses encounter in the experience of medication errors. The article that the Scandinavian Journal of Caring Science published can be found in the Cumulative Index to Nursing and the Allied Health Literature by searching the terms qualitative study and nursing and later applying filters to the results shown in an English context. Other keywords that have been used in this research entail: safety, reporting, nurses, medication administration errors, and Saudi Arabia. Samantha et al. have evaluated the research purpose of this study as “to explored factors that influence the occurrence of MAEs and error reporting by nurses (Hammoudi, Ismaile & Yahya 2018).” The study essentially involved identifying critical participants in the health care field and further linking them to the medication administration errors that occur to the patients. The author describes the purpose of this study by presenting various strengths and weaknesses in the chosen qualitative approach, the participant selection and choice, the protection of human subjects, the sample size determination, the description of the study's findings, and the model used in the study process.
Background Review
The paper includes a background review on the exciting topic. The background and abstract aspects of a research paper provide the critical elements of the study and the background information. For instance, the background information relating to the topic, such as the impact of medication errors on patient safety, is explored (Hammoudi, Ismaile, & Yahya, 2017). The paper provides a good review of the background information and validation for the need for research on why nurses fail to report medication errors in practice. Further, the section summarizes the paper, the aims, the research design, and the implications of the study's findings (Hammoudi, Ismaile & Yahya 2018). While the article has no abstract, the introduction section provides a clear review of the existing evidence on the topic of interest. The researchers are keen to justify the research methodology and the need for the inquiry.
Analysis
MAE and Qualitative Research Methods
The MAE topic lends itself to the qualitative research methods since the author has ensured that all the aspects are dealt with from a human perspective. For example, all the sample sizes used underwent interviews to provide the research team with vital information on how medication administration errors are evident in the nursing field and how nurses respond. Similarly, the researchers have used other data collection methods, such as questionnaires, and therefore all their findings have been based on a human experience (Hammoudi, Ismaile & Yahya 2018).