Mix-up of Patient Medication
The issue of the nurses giving the patients the wrong prescription is not a new issue and various cases have been lodged before various courts. These mix-ups may be from the side of the hospital or at times the carelessness or negligence on the side of the nurses. However, at times the problem may come directly from the way the hospital stores its medications (Edwards and Elwyn 2009, p. 12). These mix-ups may lead to the further deterioration of the health of the patients and further at times the death of that patient (Think Reliability, 2016). Various researches have been carried pertaining to this issue.
In this essay, I explore the issue of mix-up in the way the medications were administered to one patient that further led to his death. For this, essay I will call him, Mr. Mark. Further to help in the structuring of this essay, I will use the Gibbs framework for easier and better flow of the issues(Gibbs, 1988).
Description
Feelings
I was really saddened, angry and weak when I heard whatever had unfolded and led to the mix-up in these prescriptions. This is since, the negligence on the part of the nurse and the registrar led to a man losing his life. The fact that a person was in a hurry to meet the hospital’s deadline led to a man losing his life. The fact that the hospital didn’t have clear and set markings for the patient’s prescriptions, led to a man losing his life and further, the head nurse, entrusting the fresh from college nurse to administer the drugs led Mr. Mark losing his life, really made me angry and confused on how the medical centre carries out its activities.
Further, the feeling of weakness was caused by the fact that the nurse was so inexperienced in her work and she was still employed in the hospital and she was entrusted to carry out her activities unsupervised. Although she tried to ask for guidance, it is her duty to have the ability to differentiate the drugs from one another and not having to go asking.
Evaluation
Further, from the situation, in my view, I realised that the fact that the registrar was working overtime and he was trying to work faster in order for him to meet the set deadline, may have led to him just affirming that the drug was that which Mr. Mark was supposed to be given.
In the research that was carried out by the ThinkReliablity (2016) showed that the issues of mix-ups in the patient’s drugs would cause various effects on the patients, from the organ-failures and at times even death of the patient (ThinkReliability, 2016). It further, showed that the family of the patients must always be compensated if this happens.
In the research that was carried out by the Medical Insurance Group (2011), pertaining to the issue of medication mistakes was one which concluded various issues that are visible in the scenario of Mr. Mark. From the research, it was realised that many mix-ups in the medication that the patients are always administered are mainly, due to the nurses being distracted as they carried out their activities and in this case the registrar was destructed from his work due to the fact of him having to meet the set deadline (Medical Insurance Group, 2011). Further, it was realized that many errors pertaining to the medications, mainly occur in the evening when the personnel were distracted, busy or working overtime and further the lack of adequate flow of information amongst the seniors in the hospital which in turn leads to a problem in the assessment of the dosage that an individual may be given(Medical Insurance Group, 2011).
Analysis
In this situation, it is clear that as a nurse we are required to carry out our activities in a manner that will always end up in our patient’s health improving and the mix-ups should not be allowed to occur.
Conclusion
In conclusion, we as nurses we are required to carry out our activities with utmost care and precision which in turn reciprocates in the care on the part of the patients we attend to. Further, the hospital is required to have in place measures that will in turn lead to this issue of mix-up of the medications a forgotten issue.
Action Plan
In order to reduce the number of medication mix-ups I am of the opinion that the nurses must always be regularly be educated on the various drugs in the storage units and also the hospital must have in place clear and right labels on the drugs.
References
Edwards, A and Elwyn, G (2009) Shared decision-making in health care: achieving evidencebased patient choice, 2 nd ed. Oxford, Oxford University Press: 6-18
Gibbs G (1988) Learning by doing: a guide to teaching and learning methods, Oxford, OxfordPolytechnic Further Education unit
Medical InsuraceGroup(2011), Medical mistakes: A case Study for doctors working in hospitals(Updated August 2011)[online] available at http://www.miga.com.au/library/11RRCS16.pdf [Accessed 11th June 2016]
Think Reliability (2016), Drug Mix-Up Kills patient [Online] available at: http://www.thinkreliability.com/pdf/blog-Hospital-DischargeMistakes.pdf [Accessed 11th June 2016]
