Medication Errors Case Study
Case Study #2- Medication Error
1. Define “overdose.” What are some symptoms of overdose and statistics? Contrast accidental and intentional overdoses.
An overdose is when a dangerous dosage of a drug is ingested. Fluctuation vital signs, exhaustion, dizziness, and chest, hear, and lung pain are all symptoms of overdose. Prescription drugs are the largest cause of deaths from overdose. In 2005, out of the 22,400 overdoses, 38.2% were the result of pain killers. Intentional overdose is the misuse of prescribed or not prescribed medications taken in excessive quantities in attempt to self-harm. Accidental overdoses happen due to misreading of dosages or failing to understand the label. It is also possible that the doctor does not realize the …show more content…
Make sure the patient has two forms of identifiers, verify allergies, note any critical diagnoses, current medication, and height and weight. Another recommendation is up to date drug information. Use multiple drug references, guidelines, and high-alert meds. One last recommendation is communication, share information, write clear, and avoid abbreviations. Require all unused drugs to be returned to the pharmacy and having the computerized checking system double check doses every time.
6. What are some risk factors that lead to medication errors?
Medication errors can be a result of long work shifts, inexperience staff, medical services such as an interpreter, multiple medications for a single patient, environmental factors, fatigue in doctors and nurses, dosage requirements, poor communication, distribution system error, improper drug storage, miscalculations or measurements, confusing labels or packaging of medications, poor handwriting, verbal commands, lack of authority in policies and procedures, poor overseers.
7. What are some ways that medication errors can be …show more content…
A conversion factor is a numerical quantity used to multiple or divide when converting from one system of measurements to another. For example, when converting milligrams to grams, the milligrams is always divided by 1000 to get the final answer in grams. If someone had 35 milligrams of NaCl and wanted to know how much 35 milligrams of NaCl would be in grams, they would divide 35mg by 1000 to determine the number of grams. 35mg x 1g/1000mg= .035g. The mg would cancel leaving the final unit as grams. Conversion factors are especially critical when administering medicine to child, because children vary greatly in weight from an adult so children cannot accept the same dosage as an adult would. The less they weigh, the less dosage they can receive. If a child receive the dosage intended for an adult the child would experience an
1. Define “overdose.” What are some symptoms of overdose and statistics? Contrast accidental and intentional overdoses.
An overdose is when a dangerous dosage of a drug is ingested. Fluctuation vital signs, exhaustion, dizziness, and chest, hear, and lung pain are all symptoms of overdose. Prescription drugs are the largest cause of deaths from overdose. In 2005, out of the 22,400 overdoses, 38.2% were the result of pain killers. Intentional overdose is the misuse of prescribed or not prescribed medications taken in excessive quantities in attempt to self-harm. Accidental overdoses happen due to misreading of dosages or failing to understand the label. It is also possible that the doctor does not realize the …show more content…
Make sure the patient has two forms of identifiers, verify allergies, note any critical diagnoses, current medication, and height and weight. Another recommendation is up to date drug information. Use multiple drug references, guidelines, and high-alert meds. One last recommendation is communication, share information, write clear, and avoid abbreviations. Require all unused drugs to be returned to the pharmacy and having the computerized checking system double check doses every time.
6. What are some risk factors that lead to medication errors?
Medication errors can be a result of long work shifts, inexperience staff, medical services such as an interpreter, multiple medications for a single patient, environmental factors, fatigue in doctors and nurses, dosage requirements, poor communication, distribution system error, improper drug storage, miscalculations or measurements, confusing labels or packaging of medications, poor handwriting, verbal commands, lack of authority in policies and procedures, poor overseers.
7. What are some ways that medication errors can be …show more content…
A conversion factor is a numerical quantity used to multiple or divide when converting from one system of measurements to another. For example, when converting milligrams to grams, the milligrams is always divided by 1000 to get the final answer in grams. If someone had 35 milligrams of NaCl and wanted to know how much 35 milligrams of NaCl would be in grams, they would divide 35mg by 1000 to determine the number of grams. 35mg x 1g/1000mg= .035g. The mg would cancel leaving the final unit as grams. Conversion factors are especially critical when administering medicine to child, because children vary greatly in weight from an adult so children cannot accept the same dosage as an adult would. The less they weigh, the less dosage they can receive. If a child receive the dosage intended for an adult the child would experience an