Medication administration errors are preventable events that can have serious implications for patient safety. Active management and effective reporting systems can promote error detection and improve patient outcomes (Elden & Ismail, 2016). Collaborative team-based work is an important tool to improve relationships between healthcare professionals and reduce the number of medication errors that occur due to poor communication. An interprofessional team that needs to be assembled to prevent future recurrence of medication administration errors will consist of clinical pharmacists, physicians, and members of the nursing staff.
The team’s goal will be to develop a plan for medication use with consideration of responsibilities and professional competencies of members. As experts in medications, pharmacists will have to prepare special guidelines for physicians on managing particular conditions, examine prescribing activities, and communicate patient-specific recommendations to the team. As professionals who manage patients’ daily schedule, nurses will develop an individualized care plan before counseling with a pharmacist.
As experts in patient care, physicians will discuss the medication management plan for patients with pharmacists. All members will participate in the examination of case reports of medication errors to identify corrective actions.
Accountability should be shared between the team members to enable the successful implementation of team-based care. Ways to distribute and monitor tasks among interprofessional team members include oral communication and non-verbal communication, such as communication logs, protocols, and guidelines. Strategies that will be used to facilitate effective communication and collaboration include the promotion of joint decision-making and education of members about how cultural, managerial, and environmental factors affect medication errors. It is crucial to focus on nurses’ and physicians’ interpersonal relationships with pharmacists and simplify communication channels through a collaborative examination of medication administration errors.
Reference
Elden, N. M., & Ismail, A. (2016). The importance of medication errors reporting in improving the quality of clinical care services. Global Journal of Health Science, 8(8), 243-251. Web.