Introduction
Abbreviations can cause big errors which would be otherwise avoided. Eliminating abbreviations would reduce cases of misinterpretations and avoid ‘confirmation bias’ whereby practitioners see the information they expect rather than seeing what is actually there which might contradict what they expect. It will also make matters clear without having to explain anything further. One abbreviation from one medical practitioner can be misinterpreted by different people under him and this will lead to a chain of errors that may not be reversible. It is evident that even the most proficient health officer usually has problems with the abbreviations that have been written by the fellow colleagues. This in turn usually result to wrong diagnosis of the disease that is being targeted upon.
An example is when a nurse misinterprets an abbreviation in a prescription; this may lead to her administering the wrong medication which may lead to patient harm or even death.
Eliminating abbreviation will also make facts clear to no professional such that even a layman would understand the details of a prescription and not make a mistake when taking medication.
Eliminating abbreviations would reduce the cases of confusing drug names that may have the same abbreviations. It will also improve communication throughout the medication use process-prescribing, transcribing, dispensing and administration. in most case the health practitioners usually give prescription to the patient who in turn might end up confusing the type of the drug that they have been prescribed basing on it abbreviations.
The focus has to be laid on the safety of the client. This has to be centered on the immense use of the abbreviation in that the some uses are usually irrelevant and confusing to both the practitioners and the patients. The main aim of the abbreviation should be centered in the provision of an appropriate shortcut at that complication of the initial intended needs
On the other hand some medicinal drugs can be abused to produce a resulting effect to the person who is using it therefore abbreviations have to be used to prevent the occurrence of such situation through bringing confusion.
Rules and regulations
Yes, written policies should be developed for abbreviations. The basis of these policies will sound as a firm aspect which will be able to minimize the confusion brought about by the abbreviations. When the policies are made, they will ensure that stringent measures are put in place such that the use of the abbreviations are correctly made and their application are fostered to the required entailment.
The policies should include rules and regulations that govern the use of abbreviations such as: a list of unacceptable abbreviations that should be shared by all the practitioners. This should be attached to some penalty such as if an intolerable acronym is used, the recommendation order ought to be established by the health practitioners before being given. This will help the person prescribing the drugs to avoid using the dangerous abbreviations since they would not want to be going over the same thing again and again.
Of the many cease that have been attributed to the prescription and the usage of abbreviation, those vividly experienced occur when a patient is given the prescription and he or she forgets the name of the drug prescribed. This usually results to intoxication since the usage if the unperceived drugs usually increase. Medication orders have to be accurate for their intended use so incase abbreviations are used they have to be the acceptable ones or have to be verified.
Pharmacists should review all the prescription orders and contact the prescribers before dispensing. All medical practitioners should familiarize themselves with the dangerous abbreviations and the acceptable ones. All new staff members have to be orientated on the use of dangerous abbreviations so as to avoid making mistakes. This has to be emphasized so that they get used to the idea of using acceptable abbreviations only.
Any errors involved in the use of abbreviations should be reported immediately.policies also that clearly impact in those issuance of abbreviation or clearly seen should be developed so as to reduce the immediate cause of the confusions. With respect to accountability, policies should be formulated which clearly defines the posuti9i that a person is in whether he or she has given the right abbreviation.
Application of abbreviations
Abbreviations are only acceptable when the medical practitioners have a lot to cover and need to save time, especially in emergency cases. The prescribers or medical practitioners should use them when they have many patients and only if they will interpret the prescriptions to the pharmacists or even the nurses (Kent 22). This may only be in the interest of saving more lives and that’s if using the abbreviations will save a lot of time.
Only the acceptable abbreviations should be used at any given time. These are the ones that all the practitioners have agreed on and are fully familiar with their use such that they cannot be misinterpreted. Abbreviations can also be acceptable when dealing professionals who may definitely not misinterpret what you are saying or what you mean. This applies when communicating with a group of professionals on the same field of study who are already used to certain terms and do not need interpretations.
Abbreviations may also be acceptable for personal references; this applies when you do not need anyone else to interpret what you have written.
It also helps in patient discretion whereby, one’s complications will not be known by unauthorized people, this helps in ensuring privacy. This is definite method to preserve the secrecy of the patient’s medication and the condition that the patient is suffering from a fact that enhances their relationship. In most case the use of the abbreviation to, patient is usually an effective account since the patient and the doctor usually preserve the secrecy and thus enhancing the nursing ethics.
Conclusion
According to the publications, enough steps have not been taken to reduce the errors. This can be proved by the story about the child who died because of a misinterpretation in the prescription for morphine. If enough steps had been taken then such serious errors would not occur (Kent 22). Policies should be reinforced to govern the use of these abbreviations so as to save lives. It is noted that the abuse of abbreviations that are not in accordance to the specified limit greatly reduce the chances to acquire the right diagnosis and unless effective mechanism have been portrayed, there will not occur the right implementation of medicinal; drugs and prescriptions to the patients.
Despite repeated warnings by the organization for secure prescription practices and other organizations about the use of dangerous abbreviations and its implications, these abbreviations have continued to increase the potential for patient harm. This already shows that there is more that needs to be done about the dangerous abbreviations. The recommendations for best practices are also yet to be implemented it is evident that both positive and negative impact since they have to protect and at the same time prevent the privacy of the patient.
Work cited
The institute of safe medication practices retrieved from www.ismp.org on. 2008.
Peter Kent Abbreviations in the basis of ethical nursing practices: Focusing on health care practices Longman publishers (2) 22-27.