Paper Example on Medical Errors

Wrong Drugs Prescription for Patients seeking health services has been on the rise in most hospitals. A significant number of patients have fallen victim of medical error causing a lot of suffering and death (Bicket et al., 2017). Most of the medical errors are caused by laziness, lack of paying attention to the patients as well as poor labeling of the containers used in storing the drugs. Failure by the patients to follow the instruction and taking the required prescription has also significantly contributed to the increases cases of medical errors thereby resulting in rising in the number of the patient suffering from the diseases and death (Ignatavicius and Workman, 2015). Therefore, there is urgent need to come up with a resolution to the problem of wrong drugs prescription for Patients both in hospitals, chemistry as well as the homestead. Additionally, pharmaceutical and other drug manufacturing companies play in controlling the rate of medical errors through efficient labeling and coloring the containers to minimize confusion among the caregivers when giving a prescription (Martin et al., 2017, p. 575). With the help of the eight literature review, this paper will examine and compares research questions from the literature, sample population as well as limitation of the studies.

The research questions from the eight literature reviews aim at examining ways in which medical errors such as wrong drug prescription can be rectified. The literature explores various practices that when observed by the workers can result in the reduction of error in medication. The first research question looks at how the drug packages can contribute or eradicate medical errors while the second literature looks at the effects of medication error to the patient (Makary and Daniel, 2016). The third research question looks at how psychological condition of the caregivers as opposed to the other research question which explores how preparation by the doctor before attending to the patient contributes to the medication errors (Wright and Khatri, 2015, p. 139). Additionally, the other look at the teamwork among the caregivers with the hospital contributes to the regulation of wrong drug prescriptions. Both of the research questions aimed at scrutinizing factors that can help in reducing the medical errors. The first research question deals with the cautiousness that should be put in place to help in minimizing the situation of wrong drug prescription. Others research question looks at the physical and structural designing of the healthcare facilities helps in bringing orders thereby giving the nurses easy time to identify the correct drug for a prescription (Hammerling et al., 2015, p41). Moreover, some of the research questions examine how the well-being of the caregivers, both physical and psychological contributes to the control of the error in medication. Finally, some issues look at procedure and methods that can use in preventing a mistake in medication from occurring while another look at how preparation made by the hospital, doctors, and patients can help in reducing wrong drug prescription to the patients (Valentine et al., 2015). The main aim of the research questions is to look at the possible causes of errors in medication hence helping to prose the best control and preventive measures to the problems.

Sampling population refers to the sources where information concerning wrong drug prescription was gathered. The sample of the population was taken from different sources. Therefore, this helped in providing the detailed information concerning all problems of drug and medication errors. Some information was sampled from the nursing practice union, others from hospital laboratory while others from records with the healthcare facilities. The information concerning the wrong prescription of drugs was sampled from a different population at different times. Some information was gathered in the year 2015 while others were collected in the year 2016. Moreover, both of the sample populations were undertaken were undertaken within the perimeters walls of the hospital. Therefore, the information gathered from the population can have some reflection on the significant causes of medication problems hence helping in the solving eradicating the wrong drug prescription challenge. Finally, from the literature review, the sample populations that acted as the sources of information concerning error in medication were captured from differences in sample size.

The eight literature presents concerning errors in medical errors have different laminations and shortcomings that hinder prevention and control of the wrong drug prescriptions. First, from the literature review, literature reviews that use question fails to explains to the readers whether the questionnaires were opened or close-ended while the questionnaire that uses fails to explains the readers the language that was used to carry out the interview. Consequently, the study only concentrated on the views of the nurses and the hospital environment in the advancement of the medical care (Singh and Sittig, 2015, p. 103). The research fails to capture the views of the patients and the general public for the wrong diagnosis with drugs.

Conclusion and Recommendation

From the study, it is evidenced that medical error is a situation that can be controlled and only requires the goodwill and commitment of the caregivers, patients, and drug manufacturing companies. Medical error continues to harm patients and to cause unnecessary injuries and death; therefore, there is urgent need to stop the problem. The government and various health policies should create awareness among the patients, the general public and the nurses to ensure that everybody is aware of the problem. Additionally, there is a need to develop a better relationship between nurses and nurses to ensure that health workers are conscious and able to differentiate the various signs and labels of containers with drugs. Finally, there should be teamwork among the nurses and enough rotational shifts to give them enough resting time thereby reducing the rate of medical errors.

References

Bicket, M. C., Kattail, D., Yaster, M., Wu, C. L., & Pronovost, P. (2017). An analysis of errors, discrepancies, and variation in opioid prescriptions for adult outpatients at a teaching hospital. Journal of opioid management, 1 3(1), 51.

Hammerling, J. A. (2015). A review of medical errors in laboratory diagnostics and where we are today. Laboratory Medicine, 43(2), 41-44.

Ignatavicius, D. D., & Workman, M. L. (2015). Medical-Surgical Nursing-EBook: PatientCentered Collaborative Care. Elsevier Health Sciences.

Makary, M. A., & Daniel, M. (2016). Medical error-the third leading cause of death in the US. BMJ: British Medical Journal (Online), 35

Martin, L. D., Grigg, E. B., Verma, S., Latham, G. J., Rampersad, S. E., & Martin, L. D. (2017). Outcomes of a Failure Mode and Effects Analysis for medication errors in pediatric anesthesia. Pediatric Anesthesia, 27(6), 571-580

Singh, H., & Sittig, D. F. (2015). Advancing the science of measurement of diagnostic errors in healthcare: The Safer Dx framework. B MJ Qual Saf, 24(2), 103-110.

Valentine, M. A., Nembhard, I. M., & Edmondson, A. C. (2015). Measuring teamwork in health care settings: a review of survey instruments. Medical care, 53(4), e16-e30.

Wright, W., & Khatri, N. (2015). Bullying among nursing staff: Relationship with psychological/behavioral responses of nurses and medical errors. Health care management review, 40(2), 139- 147