Communication errors
Communication is among the crucial aspects especially in nursing that promotes optimal care delivery. As such, effective communication among healthcare professionals especially during shift changes helps in preventing various medical errors like medication overdose as well as surgical complications. In addition, effective communication helps in enhancing the clinical outcomes of patients since medical errors are closely associated with various adverse events that have severe health as well as economic consequences on patients. According to Pham et al. (2012), effective communication among healthcare professionals especially during shift changes helps in minimizing the incidences of medical errors and subsequent injuries as well as deaths.
Medication overdose is one of the key medical errors that I have witnessed during my clinical practice whereby medication overdose is mainly caused by ineffective communication among the nurses especially during shift change. For instance, in one of my clinical experiences, a nurse administered overdose pain medications to a patients after they were transferred from another unit whereby this was caused by poor communication between the nurse transferring the patient and the nurse who received in the patient in the second unit.
In the light of this, improving communication among the healthcare professionals in an effective approach that can help to significantly minimize cases of medical errors and enhance the patients’ clinical outcomes (Pham et al., 2012). In regard to this, documentation is an effective strategy that could be used in reducing medical errors. For instance, incidences of overdose such as in the aforementioned scenario can be reduced through documenting all the clinical procedures in the medical records since documentation helps in communicating all the clinical procedures among the nurse as well as other healthcare professionals involved in the care of patients.
Capstone project feasibility
Implementation as well as supporting of the project is one of the most important steps that promotes the adoption and sustainability of the identified intervention in clinical practice (Dearholt & Dang, 2012). Nonetheless, implementation involved various resources both tangible and intangible. In the light of this, implementation of this project shall involve various resources such as time, financial resources as well as the input and support of the involved staff. Firstly, implementation of project shall involve training of nurses on effective hourly rounding and the benefits that accrue from this intervention. Secondly, implementation shall involve the commitment of nurses as well as other support staff in order to ensure that the elderly patients are monitored on hourly basis as well as ensure that their needs such as toileting, repositioning and bathing are adequately met so as to prevent incidences of falls (Dearholt & Dang, 2012). Thirdly, implementation shall involve financial resources especially in regard to overtime payments to nurses since the hourly rounding usually requires nurses to sometimes work on overtime basis.
Moreover, implementation shall involve commitment of the nurse manager so as to ensure effective hourly rounding. Furthermore, implementation of this project shall involve allocation of time as well as motivation of nurse in order to foster effective hourly monitoring. However, nurses and other involved healthcare professionals should conduct a cost-benefit analysis so as to ensure the benefits that accrue from the project outweigh the initial cost (American Nurses Association, 2015). Thus, implementation of the project shall help to minimize incidences of falls, fall-related injuries as well as deaths thereby improving the patients’ overall outcomes. In addition, implementation as well as supporting of the project shall help in reducing the healthcare organization’s health expenditures especially those incurred in providing care to patients with fall injuries and compensating patients for fall injuries as well as death. Overall, the implementation of hourly rounding is an effective approach that is associated with various health or economic benefits among patients as well as the organization.
References
American Nurses Association. (2015). Nursing: Scope and standards of practice (3rd ed.). Silver Spring, MD: Author.
Dearholt, S. L., & Dang, D. (2012). Johns Hopkins nursing evidence-based practice: Model and guidelines (2nd-ed.). Indianapolis, IN: Sigma Theta Tau International.
Pham, J. C., Aswani, M. S., Rosen, M., Lee, H., Huddle, M., Weeks, K., & Pronovost, P. J. (2012). Reducing medical errors and adverse events.Annual review of medicine, 63, 447-463.
