Kenny,
K. (2016). Empowering nurses to address the persistent challenge of medication
errors. Retrieved January 11, 2017 from: http://www.healthcare-informatics.com/article/ehr/empowering-nurses-address-persistent-challenge-medication-errors
Why was this article, blog, post, or
multimedia chosen?
I
chose this article because nurses are increasingly being required to manage
more and more areas of patient care. Medication
administration, an intermediary position between families and physicians,
collaborating care between departments, screening all care and orders for
inconsistencies and safety issues, and acting as a physical and occupational
therapist are some of the roles that need to be juggled throughout a shift.
Having to juggling all of those roles along with the immense amount of incoming
information that needs to be remembered, increases the likelihood of medication
errors occurring.
What makes it interesting,
appropriate, or reputable?
Every
nurse can probably relate to a shift of juggling several heavy patient
assignments, being overwhelmed with new orders that need to be taken off an
carried out, documentation, and patient medications that were due almost an
hour ago but you haven’t had a chance to stop in to the med room yet in between
family questions and phone calls. Stopping and calling the pharmacy or
searching through a medication database is just too time consuming. That is why
providing nurses with medication learning solutions are so important. Having relevant drug interactions, safe
doses, and side effects in an easy to understand format that is quicker to
access with the most relevant information is literally a life-saver.
Is it
an opinion? Case study? Research study? Product review?
This
article was a product review of medication learning solutions.
What was the need, problem,
issue or trend addressed in the article, blog, post, or multimedia?
The
article reports that the estimated number of American’s effected by medication
errors is 1.5 million people, of which 7,000 result in death, as well as a $21
billion price tag on the healthcare budget annually. This increasing number of medication errors
is why the importance of medication learning solutions for healthcare
organizations should increase correspondingly.
What was the solution for which
technology had an answer?
Having relevant drug interactions,
safe doses, and side effects in an easy to understand format that is quicker to
access with the most relevant information, and therefore preventing medication errors.
What implications might this
have in healthcare delivery?
Medication
learning tools help nurses administer medications safely, ultimately decreasing
the cost of healthcare, provides education for patients which also improves
compliance and patient satisfaction.
What did you learn from it that might have application for
your practice?
The rehab where I work per-diem
does not utilize tools for electronic medication administration. Having an
assignment of fifteen patient that are each on multiple medications increases
the chance of medication errors. Racing to get all of the patients medicated in
the morning is like sprinting a marathon.
The large patient load, medication drawers filled with hundreds of
different medications, many distractions, and no access to a medication
databases or medication learning tools, make the perfect storm for making
mistakes. This needs to be presented to administration, along with the
financial benefits which will hopefully encourage them to consider medication
learning tools.
Reference
Kenny,
K. (2016). Empowering nurses to address the persistent challenge of medication
errors. Retrieved January 11, 2017 from: http://www.healthcare-informatics.com/article/ehr/empowering-nurses-address-persistent-challenge-medication-errors
