Introduction
It’s very critical for any health institution to ensure that the right standards and measures are adhered to by all medical practitioners. This ensures the safety of their patients. Doctors and nurses alike, along with other stakeholders in any health institution should take it among themselves to ensure that careless and avoidable mistakes are not committed. This would save a lot of lives which would otherwise be lost.
Critique
The paper on ‘Nurse Perception on Medication Errors and Reporting’, by Ann Mayo and Denise Duncan, tries to give a view of what is perceived by nurses as medication errors. However, this is not what medication errors really constitute. In its endeavor to define what a medical error is, it states that medication errors are deviations from physician instructions. It has also tried to give the causes of these errors: most errors depicting the nurses negatively. A lot of factors would contribute to medication errors other than those listed in this paper. Before making a decision on who is mostly on the wrong side in an instance of these errors, it would be important to first look at some of the causes that lead to these errors.
The authors have attributed these errors to both the physicians and nurses alike but with more blame being put on the nurses. First and foremost, there is the issue of illegible hand writing. This is listed as the top cause of deviations from physician’s instructions as the nurse in question interprets the instructions wrongly here. This assertion is in it self ridiculous because it is expected that the parties involved in the well being of a patient should work hand in hand.
There should be a proper communication channel in which confirmations and verifications should be made. Frequent follow ups should also be carried out to ensure that the right actions are taken. In such an instance both the nurse and the physician should be held responsible since they are both supposed to ensure that they are on the same page in administering medication to the patient.
The authors say that nurses also make medication errors due to wrong placements of the medical equipments. This is also among the top reason for medication errors. The question here is how some one who is fully qualified would wrongly place medical equipment. According to the authors paper 95% of nurses that made their population had practiced for 18.7 years with 62.7% working full time and of whom 40% were associate degree holders and 44% were bachelor’s degree holders. This are highly qualified and experienced population who would rarely make a mistake like of placing medical equipment wrongly.
The issue of fatigue though would be a good enough reason as to explain some of the errors committed. Working around the clock especially at night like from 7pm to 7pm would drain one a lot of energy and can also lead to mental fatigue. This is the result of the errors of misinterpretation of physician instructions and maybe errors of confusing the patients’ label tags. But then this would be expected to happen on higher scale with nurses on apprenticeship rather than experienced and skilled nurses. This though is not to dismiss that the latter can not commit these mistakes. It’s vital for a hospital to have enough personnel especially the nurses since there the ones most involved with the patients’ welfare.
Another cause of medication error according to Ann and Denise’s study is the when nurses are distracted by other patients, coworkers and other events going on in the unit. Nurses in a health unit are usually given specific responsibility. The case of confusion among the nurses is uncalled for. Such experienced and skilled nurses, as in the study, should also not be in a position to be distracted by other patients. Though there are some instances of emergencies where the occurring events may bring confusion to the unit. All in all the greatest responsibility of medication error should be placed on the physician but this is not to say that the responsible nurse should walk scot free (Barr and Sines, 2009).
When it comes to reporting of medication errors nurses should take full responsibility. The study was meant to give instances of what should be a medication error, which should be reported, which should be ignored and which should a nurse write an in incidence report. In a health institution, any single mistake however small is very critical and my expose a patient to a great danger. It would therefore be vital to report every single mistake however insignificant it may seem. Among the top reasons given for nurses failure to report medication errors is; the reaction from the nurses’ manager and embarrassment from fellow nurses.
These are very unprofessional reasons which should be attributed to experienced nurses. It is expected that there should be a cordial working relationship among the nurses and with their seniors. It is absurd to lose 700 lives a year due to the failure to report medication errors. It is also alarming that almost a have of the experienced nurses are not sure what constitutes a medication error and that almost have also would not bother reporting.
Conclusion
Though this study does not fully outline what medication errors are it gives a limelight of what should be done to avert deaths caused by medical practitioners’ negligence. It is vital that proper training b e administered to prospective nurses and refresher courses be carried out on a regular basis on practicing nurses. Communication courses should also be administered as this seems to be a major problem in health institutions. It is although not very clear how a nurse who has been in practice for more than 10 years would fail to report a mistake due to fear of their superior or embarrassment. All in all, measures need to be taken to avert patients’ deaths at all costs as that is the sole purpose of a health institution (Barr and Sines, 2009).
Reference
Barr, O. & Sines, D. (2009). The Development of the Generalist Nurse within Preregistration Nurse Education in the UK: Some Points for Consideration. Nurse Education Today, 4: 274–277.