Best Practices Addressing Medication Errors

Applying Research Skills: Medication Errors
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Applying Research Skills: Medication Errors
Overview of the Topic
Summary
Medication error is a critical problem in the medical field which heavily impacts the patients. It is a preventable event that jeopardizes the quality of care due to medical mistakes. It can also be highlighted as wrong meditation or dosage taken by the patient, whether harmful or not. Medication error majorly comes from the ignorance of the health experts; however, others may be genuine. Medication-use systems can always experience medication errors. For instance, during primary activities such as drug prescription, dispensation, information gathering, a nurse may make a mistake that adversely affects the quality of care. According to the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA), approximately 100,000 cases are reported annually as medical errors (Manias & Wu, 2020). Some of the agencies responsible for these reports are consumers, healthcare professionals, and drug manufacturers. Medication errors are critical since they affect the patients, including birth defects, disability, hospitalization, life threat, and death. Indeed, healthcare needs to focus on strong measures to curb the identified problems and ensure sustainable healthcare. The FDA is working with other agencies to reduce medication errors that constantly affect the patients' health. Specific interventions and best practices are implemented to reduce the problem, including staff education, safety training, and medical staff education. The FDA constantly reviews the drug options by focusing on packaging, labeling, and product design to identify any possible misinformation which may cause harm to the patient. However, the problem still exists, and more interventions are necessary.
Interest in the Topic
I am interested in the topic due to the adverse impacts on the patients to devise necessary solutions. I am longing for a system where there should be no errors in the medication since whenever a mistake is made, it is irreversible. Therefore instead of exposing the patients to life threats, best practices are necessary to reduce such errors. Besides, it is a topic of interest since the actions that lead to medical errors are preventable. Therefore, stringent measures are needed to eliminate the problem. Lastly, the topic is of interest since it affects the quality of care. As a future health expert, I must ensure high-quality patient healthcare.
Professional Experience
I have significant professional experience with medication errors. For instance, working as a part-time pharmacist in one of the chemists, I came across a poorly packaged drug where opioid was packed instead of NSAIDs. All the drugs are pain killers, but they play different roles. Therefore, regardless of playing a similar role, they act uniquely. I was disturbed by the scenario, and whenever I would prescribe such a drug to the patient, it would lead to health issues. I took the issue as critical and decided as a health expert. I would ensure medication errors are addressed, and the life of the patients are safeguarded.
Annotated Bibliography
Kaur, A....