Tool Kit for the Medication Administration Safety Improvement Plan

Subject:	Nursing
Pages:	8
Words:	2621
Reading time:	11 min
Study level:	Bachelor

Summary
Patient Safety as an Outcome of Safe Medication Administration
Assessment Tools for Safe Medication Administration
Group Collaboration Facilitation
References

Summary

Continuous access to evidence-based information and educational materials is essential for the nursing profession’s development. Healthcare workers strive to improve their skills, knowledge, and competencies on a systematic basis to ensure the compliance of their performance quality with the highest standards. In such a manner, patient outcomes might be continuously facilitated, and the overall care delivery maintained safely. One of the key elements of safe care delivery is medication administration safety. This improvement plan tool kit has been designed to supply the nursing staff with a list of potentially beneficial sources of professional and scholarly information contributing to improving medication administration practices. In particular, patient such categories as safety outcomes achievement through medication administration, medication assessment tools, and group collaboration facilitation are addressed in the suggested sources. It is anticipated that the adherence to the guidelines presented in the sources will strengthen the professionalism of medication administration safety at the facility.

Patient Safety as an Outcome of Safe Medication Administration

Bates, D. W., & Singh, H. (2018). Two decades since to err is human: An assessment of progress and emerging priorities in patient safety. Health Affairs, 37(11), 1736-1743.

This source covers the advances in the improvement of patient safety situation in the US healthcare system over the past decades with an emphasis on the importance of implementing and following relevant policies. It helps nurses prioritize safe medication administration practices when making decisions on drug prescriptions under the influence of human errors. In particular, it outlines the solutions implemented to minimize medication errors in hospitals. For example, the use of computerized drug administration tools, checking for allergies, medication compatibility, and adverse effects identification within the context of patient history. The nurses might use this source as an information guideline when making daily decisions on medication administration to ensure the safety of patients at all times. Thus, this article is useful in providing health care professionals with a historical overview of the policy changes in error elimination in medical settings, as well as identifying the best solutions to medication error minimization. The article might serve as a self-educational source for young nurses striving to perfect their drug administration skills.

Alghamdi, A. A., Keers, R. N., Sutherland, A., & Ashcroft, D. M. (2019). Prevalence and nature of medication errors and preventable adverse drug events in pediatric and neonatal intensive care settings: A systematic review. Drug Safety, 42(12), 1423-1436.

This article reviews scholarly studies on the persistence, causes, and prevention methods applicable to medication errors. In particular, this source provides nurses with valuable information on the risk factors for medication administration flaws in the pediatric care setting and on the means of minimizing such threats to patient safety. It equips healthcare leaders and clinicians with evidence of the persistence of anti-infective medication administration as the category most prone to error occurrence. Thus, this source might yield decision-making guidelines for healthcare workers performing drug administration with infection-based treatment in pediatric settings. For example, a nurse might refer to this article when dealing with a complex case in pediatric care and checking for the appropriate dosage of medications. More importantly, the very administration stage of working with drugs is significantly emphasized in the article as a hazardous one, which is why nurses might learn about the prevalence of errors from this article. Despite being narrowly focused on pediatrics, the article’s usefulness is validated by its evidential basis and the emphasis on best practices capable of mitigating patient risks.

Hammoudi, B. M., Ismaile, S., & Abu Yahya, O. (2018). Factors associated with medication administration errors and why nurses fail to report them. Scandinavian Journal of Caring Sciences, 32(3), 1038-1046.

This article covers the factors that impact nurses’ medication administration errors and their reporting to the hospital authorities. In particular, the study found that the most common factors associated with unsafe drug administration to patients were inadequate packaging of medications, understaffing, pharmaceutical issues, improper communication with physicians, and problems with transcribing. Moreover, the nurses were found to fail to report the observed or experienced errors due to the fear of misunderstanding and administrative response. This source provides nurses with an evidential explanation of the causes of possible mistakes to warn them about the necessity of avoiding such risk factors. The nurses might use this source to enhance their medication error awareness at the stage of self-education within the improvement plan implementation process. The usefulness of the source is justified by its credibility, complete information on the most common causes of medication errors, and clearly defined guidance for practitioners. It informs the need to enhance organizational culture for better communication and fewer errors to ensure patient safety when receiving care.

Araújo, P. R., Lima, F. E. T., Ferreira, M. K. M., Oliveira, S. K. P. D., Carvalho, R. E. F. L. D., & Almeida, P. C. D. (2019). Medication administration safety assessment tool: Construction and validation. Revista Brasileira de Enfermagem, 72, 329-336.

This article presents the findings of a study on the development and implementation of a medication administration safety tool that establishes a functional algorithm for nurses’ decision-making when working with medications. In particular, the article introduces the Patient Safety Assessment in Medication Administration (ASPAM) tool as an effective multi-step framework containing nine key identifiers according to medication protocols. The findings of the study indicate that the use of functional medication safety tools allows for alerting nurses about every step of the decision-making process and minimizing patient harm due to the elimination of errors. Thus, this source might help nurses in their practice since it presents an effective instrument to be used by healthcare professionals. Practitioners might refer to this article to find information about important components of a reliable safety assessment tool in order to adjust their work to high standards. The article’s usefulness is defined by its thorough address and explanation of the problem of medication errors and its provision of an effective practical solution.

Assessment Tools for Safe Medication Administration

Wondmieneh, A., Alemu, W., Tadele, N., & Demis, A. (2020). Medication administration errors and contributing factors among nurses: A cross-sectional study in tertiary hospitals, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. BMC Nursing, 19(1), 1-9.

This article presents the results of a cross-sectional study on the factors that predetermine nursing errors when administering medications to patients. More specifically, the scholars focus on a tool of six rights to guide nursing decision-making for medication prescribing and administering. This hospital-based study tested medication errors and their elimination by inquiring about self-reported answers from nurses, who reported that they committed errors due to inadequate training and insufficient access to safe medication guidelines and protocols. Although not all of the information provided in the article might be relevant to US nursing due to the location of the study being Ethiopia, it provides nurses with valuable tool-related insights.

In particular, the scholars emphasize the need to eliminate medication errors before interacting with the patient by adhering to the six rights of medication administration. They include “the right patient, right drug, right time, right route, right dose, and right documentation;” nurses should report errors immediately (Wondmieneh et al., 2020, p. 2). Practitioners might use this source to obtain practice-related information on how to use the six rights tool to minimize medication errors. The usefulness of the source is in its guidance on the implementation of a functional tool capable of preventing errors by threat identification in a timely manner.

Shorey, S., & Ng, E. D. (2021). The use of virtual reality simulation among nursing students and registered nurses: A systematic review. Nurse Education Today, 98, 104662.

This source is a systematic review article on the use of simulating tools to improve the skills of safe medication administration conducted by nursing students. The scholars state that in order to integrate effective practices and cultivate well-developed skills in medication administration, computerized simulating tools might be used. This source provides nurses with valuable information on the possible ways of perfecting their competencies by initiating simulation-based training. Indeed, since the article emphasizes the decisive role of technologies in contemporary healthcare, it justifies the use of virtual reality tools as effective hands-on training for practitioners. In such a manner, nurses might use this article in situations when they require additional information on the ways of practical improvement of medication administration skills via desktop instruments and simulations. The usefulness of the source is validated by the focus on direct training of all the steps’ completed when administering drugs via computerized tools. The awareness of such tools and their use for educational and training purposes will allow for eliminating errors in practice.

Jarvill, M., Jenkins, S., Akman, O., Astroth, K. S., Pohl, C., & Jacobs, P. J. (2018). Effect of Simulation on nursing students’ medication administration competence. Clinical Simulation in Nursing, 14, 3-7.

This article presents an experimental study based on pre-intervention and post-intervention testing of the influence of clinical simulation on nursing students’ competence in medication administration. Individual simulation intervention included a hands-on virtual experience of medication administration to eliminate errors in practice. The results of the study showed that the students who underwent the individual simulation training scored higher in the quality of safe medication administration than the control group. Such findings indicate the effectiveness of simulation tools in the perfecting of nursing competence in drug administration.

The most important message cultivated by the source is that medication errors are preventable, and one of the most harmless and useful instruments to prevent them is using simulations for training purposes. In such a manner, this article equips nurses with guidelines on how to prevent medication errors and the options for using effective simulation tools to ensure the foreseeability of possible errors in their individual practice. It might be referred to in situations of necessity to improve one’s skills or upgrade one’s competencies during practice. The usefulness of the source is based on its evidential grounds, credible data, and the appeal to practitioners in the middle of completing their improvement plan.

Härkänen, M., Turunen, H., & Vehviläinen-Julkunen, K. (2020). Differences between methods of detecting medication errors: A secondary analysis of medication administration errors using incident reports, the global trigger tool method, and observations. Journal of Patient Safety, 16(2), 168-176.

This source is a comparative study of the effectiveness of different methods of detecting medication errors in hospital settings. The scholars conducted the study by integrating the incident report method, the observational method, and the Global Trigger tool method to identify how effectively they detected errors and what types of mistakes they indicated best. The results showed that different tools detected different error types. Namely, the observational method mostly identified technique inconsistencies in medication administration, while the incident report method detected a wider range of causes. This article serves as a source of information on the possible tools of error detection to raise nurses’ awareness about the multitude of error types and the ways of identifying them for proper mitigation measures. Practitioners might use it when investigating the approaches to the identification of drug mistakes and learning about the use of such tools in practice. Moreover, the article might be particularly useful for young nurses who seek evidence-based approaches to safe medication administration and skill improvement.

Group Collaboration Facilitation

Hayes, C., Power, T., Davidson, P. M., Daly, J., & Jackson, D. (2019). Learning to liaise: Using medication administration role-play to develop teamwork in undergraduate nurses. Contemporary Nurse, 55(4-5), 278-287. Web.

This article reports the results of a study on the effectiveness of teamwork facilitation by means of role-playing medication administration training. The scholars found that due to the complexity of medication administration processes involving initial prescriptions and all the steps leading to post-administration documentation preparation, its effectiveness particularly depends on teamwork. For that matter, role-play training allows for practicing team interaction for better collaboration in real-life situations. This source provides nurses with practical guidelines on how to facilitate communication and cooperation in healthcare teams to improve the safety of medication administration. It might be used for in-practice training of nurses during the practice improvement plan implementation or as needed in situations of drug administration error increase in a hospital setting. Despite being focused on the educational aspect of the issue, the article is useful even for experienced nurses since it reminds them of the importance of collaboration for patient safety improvement.

Kakemam, E., Hajizadeh, A., Azarmi, M., Zahedi, H., Gholizadeh, M., & Roh, Y. S. (2021). Nurses’ perception of teamwork and its relationship with the occurrence and reporting of adverse events: A questionnaire survey in teaching hospitals. Journal of Nursing Management, 29(5), 1189-1198.

This article presents the results of a cross-sectional survey conducted among nurses to detect their perception of the role of teamwork in minimizing adverse events during patient treatment. The study found that facilitated teamwork was associated with a lower rate of errors and a higher rate of effective reporting of adverse events. In such a manner, the article provides the nursing staff with indications of the pivotal role of involvement in functional and responsible team collaborations when delivering care to patients in general and administering medications in particular. Thus, practitioners might refer to this article for guidance on how to eliminate medication administration errors through the deliberate improvement of teamwork and effective communication in the collective of nurses and physicians. The article might serve as an information tool for guiding medical teams toward resilience and enhanced adverse event reporting for further improvement of practice.

Valdes, B., Mckay, M., & Sanko, J. S. (2021). The impact of an escape room simulation to improve nursing teamwork, leadership and communication skills: A pilot project. Simulation & Gaming, 52(1), 54-61.

This article covers the qualitative pre- and post-test study on the applicability of escape room activities for improving nurses’ collaboration in finding effective solutions in teams. The concept of escape rooms implies the necessity of solving a difficult task through collaborative team efforts under time-constraining circumstances. Although the study investigated the use of alternative and non-traditional teaching methods applicable to the nursing profession, it contributes to the body of evidence on possible tools for improving the health care team’s collaborative efforts improvement. Since such an educational practice cultivates effective communication, role indication, and responsible functioning of each member, it allows for improving the collaborative decision-making process and facilitating safe medication administration practices. Thus, the source might be used by nursing leaders when initiating teamwork training or for nurses’ educational purposes to justify the relevance of communication in teams for safe care delivery. The usefulness of the article is in its novelty and the introduction of an engaging method of nursing training.

Goh, P. Q. L., Ser, T. F., Cooper, S., Cheng, L. J., & Liaw, S. Y. (2020). Nursing teamwork in general ward settings: A mixed‐methods exploratory study among enrolled and registered nurses. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 29(19-20), 3802-3811.

This mixed-method study was conducted to measure the effectiveness of teamwork in general ward nursing staff. The participant filled out the nursing teamwork survey, which showed that the majority of nurses clearly understood their individual roles in contributing to the common goal achievement of the wards but fail to comprehend the overall teamwork engagement role. These findings indicate the necessity of improving teamwork measures for safer health care delivery to patients. The article provides nurses with the latest evidence on teamwork issues, thus raising their awareness about the difference between individual work on common tasks and effective team collaboration. Therefore, the nurses might use it to facilitate their understanding of nursing teamwork in the context of medication administration error prevention. The article’s usefulness relies on the clarity of evidence and the informative character of findings pertaining to the facilitation of collaboration in nursing staff.

References

Alghamdi, A. A., Keers, R. N., Sutherland, A., & Ashcroft, D. M. (2019). Prevalence and nature of medication errors and preventable adverse drug events in paediatric and neonatal intensive care settings: A systematic review. Drug Safety, 42(12), 1423-1436.

Bates, D. W., & Singh, H. (2018). Two decades since to err is human: An assessment of progress and emerging priorities in patient safety. Health Affairs, 37(11), 1736-1743.

Jarvill, M., Jenkins, S., Akman, O., Astroth, K. S., Pohl, C., & Jacobs, P. J. (2018). Effect of simulation on nursing students’ medication administration competence. Clinical Simulation in Nursing, 14, 3-7.

Shorey, S., & Ng, E. D. (2021). The use of virtual reality simulation among nursing students and registered nurses: A systematic review. Nurse Education Today, 98, 104662.