A medication error is considered one of the main things that harm sick people in hospital settings (White, Dudley-Brown & Terhaar, 2016). Prevention and curing of illnesses or abnormalities can be done by medication through administering of drugs to patients. The occurrence of adverse events in medication administration can be caused when errors happen; this can be witnessed when their intended uses are interrupted due to several causes. Most serious forms of medical errors are from mistakes on medications. The discussion on this paper will be about mistakes on medication, participants involved and their accountability in reducing distractions causing mistakes on medication, and ways to use to make sure there are collaborations and communications that are effective.
Stakeholders
The patients are considered to be the first stakeholders in this case since they are recipients of the medications. The medication errors make the patients be the bigger victims since the errors can forever change their lives.
The employees who have the responsibility of administering the medication are the second stakeholders. An explanation of the management and the board and a possible punishment should follow after an employee makes a medication error.
The firm represented by the board or the management is the third stakeholder since the principle “superior respondeat” can happen in cases like those. This means that the (firm) employer will take the liabilities committed by employees.
The government is considered the last stakeholder because they follow up when patients sue the firms. Ensuring that justice is served to the patients is the government’s key plan, and they can also have the firms fined for negligence.
Working as a team
In situations where the healthcare specialists with different disciplines collaborate to ensure the right care and improvement of patient outcomes and patients’ safety through the reduction of errors is referred to as interprofessional collaboration. Every member of the team has to understand every person’s scope of practice, education level, and expertise to ensure the efficiency of interprofessional collaboration. The healthcare team’s purposes are coming together to bring diverse views about healthcare practitioners and strive to bring them together to achieve set goals while developing proficient teamwork skills.
There is an assurance of employee satisfaction and positive patient outcomes in organizations that value multidisciplinary teams (White, Dudley-Brown & Terhaar, 2016). As discussed above, the stakeholders work with other professionals to form an interdisciplinary team that promotes quality patient delivery while maintaining a smooth flow of the organization’s operations. The staff needs to understand their roles and delegate responsibilities appropriately to ensure there is effective interprofessional collaboration. Working as a team yields many benefits, including but not limited to improving patient satisfaction scores, decrease the length of hospital stay, improve patient outcomes, and limiting adverse events (Dang & Dearholt, 2018). In order to meet these goals, healthcare administration must provide quality support to staff and appropriate staffing in each unit.
Strategic Solutions
Dang & Dearholt (2018) argues that non-maleficence is a fundamental principle in nursing ethics because it makes healthcare practitioners stick to their oath of not harming any patient. Maintaining patient safety is defined by different factors, among them, being preventing medication errors. One of the strategies that can I can adopt to ensure healthcare professionals do not make mistakes that would jeopardize patients’ safety is educating on patient safety (White, Dudley-Brown & Terhaar, 2016). Secondly, introducing training programs within the organization will help professionals keep safety at the forefront and lessen the chances of becoming complacent with da recurring activities. I believe that a facility that puts safety as a priority cultivates a culture and atmosphere that values patient safety in their practices. These mistakes can be used as learning tools within the organization rather than using them as a punishment for not promoting safety and prevention (White, Dudley-Brown & Terhaar, 2016). When healthcare practitioners understand the benefits of reducing interruptions through education, Dang & Dearholt (2018) says higher chances they will comply with enacted policies such as avoiding non-work-related conversions in particular areas such as patient wards and medication rooms. Lastly, modern technology is linking smart infusion pumps with health information platforms. Healthcare facilities should incorporate electronic health records technologies to assist pharmacists and other professionals in prescribing correct drug dosage. As a result, a significant amount of medication administration errors would be reduced and increase productivity.
