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Strategies for Preventing Medication Errors

Primary Health Care: Open Access

ISSN - 2167-1079

Short Communication - (2021) Volume 11, Issue 1

Strategies for Preventing Medication Errors

Sunitha*
 
*Correspondence: Sunitha, Sri Sai Jyothi Pharmacy, India,

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It is necessary for all nurses to become at home with numerous methods to forestall or scale back the probability of medication errors. Here area unit 10 methods to assist you are doing simply that.

Make Sure the 5 Rights of Medication Administration

Nurses should make sure that institutional policies associated with medication transcription area unit followed. It isn’t adequate transcribe the medication as prescribed, however to make sure the proper medication is prescribed for the proper patient, within the correct dose, via the proper route, and regular properly (also called the 5 rights).

Follow Correct Medication Reconciliation Procedures

Institutions should have mechanisms in situ for medication reconciliation once transferring a patient from one establishment to consecutive or from one unit to consecutive within the same establishment. Review and verify every medication for the proper patient, correct medication, correct dose, correct route, and proper time against the transfer orders, or medications listed on the transfer documents. Nurses should compare this to the medication administration record (MAR). usually not all components of a medicine record area unit out there for simple verification, however it's of predominant importance to verify with each potential source—including the discharging or transferring institution/unit, the patient or patient’s family, and physician—to forestall potential errors associated with improper reconciliation. There area unit many forms for medication reconciliation out there from numerous vendors.

Double Check-or Even Triple Check-Procedures

This is a method whereby associateother nurse on an equivalent shift or an incoming shift reviews all new orders to make sure every patient’s order is noted and transcribed properly on the physician’s order and therefore the medication administration record (MAR) or the treatment administration record. Some establishments have a chart flag method in situ to focus on charts with new orders that need order verification.

Have the MD (or another nurse) Browse it Back

This is a method whereby a nurse reads back associate order to the prescribing MD to make sure the ordered medication is transcribed properly. This method can even be distributed from one nurse to consecutive whereby a nurse reads back associate order transcribed to the physician’s form to a different nurse because the MAR is reviewed to make sure accuracy.

Think About Employing A Reputation Alert

Some establishments use name alerts to forestall similar sounding patient names from potential medication false impression. Names like Johnson and general will cause straightforward confusion on the part of nursing employees, therefore it's for this reason that name alerts denote ahead of the MAR will forestall medication errors.

Place A Zero Ahead of the Mathematical Notation

A dose of zero.25mg will simply be construed as 25mg while not the zero ahead of the mathematical notation, associated this may end in an adverse outcome for a patient.

Document Everything

This includes correct medication labeling, decipherable documentation, or correct recording of administered medication. an absence of correct documentation for any medication may result in a blunder. for instance, a nurse forgetting to document associate as required medication may result in another dose being administered by another nurse since no documentation denoting previous administration exists. Reading the prescription label and expiration date of the medication is additionally another best follow. an accurate medication will have associate incorrect label or the other way around, and this may additionally cause a Master of Education error.

Guarantee Correct Storage of Medicines for Correct Effectualness

Medications that ought to be cold should be unbroken cold to take care of effectualness, and equally, medications ought to that ought to be unbroken at temperature should be keep consequently. Most biological need refrigeration, and if a multidose ampoule is employed, it should be labelled to make sure it's not used on the far side its expiration start the date it had been opened.

Learn Your Institution’s Medication Administration Policies, Rules, and Pointers

In order for nurses to follow associate institution’s medication policy, they have to become at home with the content of the policy. this is often wherever education comes into play whereby the institution’s professional or Department of Education educates nurses on the content of their medication policy. These policies usually contain very important info relating to the institution’s practices on medication ordering, transcription, administration, and documentation. Nurses can even inform themselves with pointers like the Beers’ list, recording machine warning labels, and appearance alike/sound alike medication lists.

Think About Having A Drug Guide Out There in Any Respect Times

Whether it’s print or electronic may be a matter of non-public (or institutional) preference, however each area unit equally valuable in providing necessary info on most classes of medication, including: trade and generic names, therapeutic category, drug-to-drug interactions, dosing, nursing concerns, aspect effects/adverse reactions, and drug cautionaries like “do not crush, or provide with meals.” Utilizing any or all of the on top of methods will facilitate to forestall or scale back medication errors. Nurses mustn't ever stop to recollect that error will cause a fatal outcome and it's for this reason that med safety matters.

Author Info

Sunitha*
 
Sri Sai Jyothi Pharmacy, Hyderabad, India
 

Citation: Sunitha, (Strategies for Preventing Medication Errors Prim Health Care, 2021, 11(1), 364

Received: 07-Jan-2021 Published: 30-Jan-2021, DOI: 10.35248/2167-1079.21.11.364

Copyright: © 2021 Sunitha . This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.