A proposed solution to the practice problem of patient safety is a pre-discharge medication counseling. This intervention aims to reduce medication errors and drug-related problems that frequently occur upon discharge (Ip, Tenney, A. Chu, P. Chu, & Young, 2018). A translation model chosen for creating an action plan to implement the determined solution is the Ottawa Model of Research Use. This model follows a six-step approach to guide the implementation of pre-discharge medication counseling. The proposed intervention does not require the utilization of any additional resources except human ones.
At the first stage, individuals with authority to lead the change (managers and administrative staff) and agents responsible for the change implementation (pharmacists and the medical team) should be identified. In the second stage, the change should be clearly articulated to all administrative staff stakeholders. In the third stage, the practice environment should be assessed by leaders to identify potential barriers and facilitators. Particular barriers are the same for all the implementation model steps and may include staff resistance to the change and the lack of intercommunication between stakeholders. Facilitators to overcome these barriers include using leadership models, creating a communication plan, and support from administrative staff.
At the fourth stage, the knowledge translation strategies should be selected by administrative staff to facilitate understanding of the change. The medical team has to create a standard counseling checklist and a list of medications with special instructions for which extra counseling should be provided. At the fifth stage, the change has to be implemented with the following evaluation of adoption efficiency. At the last stage, the outcomes of the change on patients and medical staff need to be evaluated by administrative staff.
Reference
Ip, R. N., Tenney, J. W., Chu, A. C., Chu, P. L., & Young, G. W. (2018). Pharmacist clinical interventions and discharge counseling in medical rehabilitation wards in a local hospital: A prospective trial. Geriatrics, 3(3). Web.