Nurses' Responsibility in the Prevention of Medication Errors Essay

Nurses' Responsibility in the Prevention of Medication Errors - Essay Example In case of the medication error emergency nurses should be prepared to tackle with it. Keywords: medication error, emergency, injuries. Introduction It is true that field of medicine and bio technology is playing an important role in our lives. Several new medicines have been designed for specific diseases. And they are working efficiently, but the importance of prevention can never be denied. In some cases prevention is the only solution and also prevention is a lot easier than the medical surgeries offered. Prevention is not only necessary to safeguard our body from further diseases but it is also very necessary in the hospital environment to save the patients from any type of medical emergency. Therefore it is the responsibility of an individual, a nurse and a doctor to block the path of the undesired medical emergencies by preventing the medical errors. Medical Errors Are Nurses Responsibilities Since nurses are intimately involved in the health care delivery and are ultimately r esponsible in acute phases of the disease, it is important for nurses to understand the factors contributing to errors for effective prevention error (Lyer & Aiken, 2001, p.171). Improving safety at the point of care is the most important aspect of error prevention. Incorrect drug calculations, lack of individual knowledge and failure to follow established protocol, time pressures, fatigue, understaffing, inexperience, design deficiencies and inadequate equipments create opportunities for error (Carlton and Blegen, 2006, p. 25). A medical error is the type of error that occurs while offering medical services to a patient. â€Å"It can be defined as the error rose due to the wrongfully taken medical step or the incorrect treatment offered to the personal error, which can further result in medical emergency.† (Bootman, 2006, p. 25).There are many types of the medical errors. Nurses and Medical Error A lot of medical errors occurred in hospital by hands of the nurses. These erro rs are sometimes minor and sometimes major. Major errors can lead to a medical emergency or even death. Minor errors can be corrected by giving anti dote or other immediate medical treatment. On the one hand when nurses are the reason behind some of the major medical errors, at the same time they have the ability to prevent the same errors. A special type of training is given to nurses to ensure the medical safety of the patients and safeguard them from any emergency by any mean (Cima, 2007, p. 35). Why are the Nurses behind Most of the Medical Errors? After doctor, nurse is the only responsible body in the hospital and she should ensure the patients’ safety by any mean. Unfortunately a lot of medical errors are made by the nurses; this could be due to their extended presence in the hospital or more duty coverage as compared to the doctors. A lot many actions come under the duties of the nurses and they have to fulfill them without any delay or excuse. Errors Made by Nurses: Several types of errors made by the nurses are observed. Following are the most abundant errors. Read and Write: Reading the wrong drug name or other treatment instruction and applying them without any confirmation. Taking the wrong drug route or failing to give proper treatment with time. Writing the poor patient information, missing the medical condition in the report and giving half information are some read and write errors. Moreover