The Importance Of Medication Errors In Nursing

The most common breach of medication administration is medication errors. This is why it is important to have a culture and environment of safety. Administration of medications is a basic activity in nursing practice. Nurses therefore must be knowledgeable about specific drugs and their administration, patient response, drug interactions, patient allergies, and related resources. Safety and prevention of medication errors are essential” (Kee 2015). A culture and environment of safety for medication administration should be a clutter free environment. “As nurses, we should not have other multiple medications out at one time; so we will not mistake one medication with another and/or give a wrong medication to a wrong patient. In addition, there shouldn’t be any distractions in medication room or area. According to Flynn (2016), four main sources of interruptions were identified as: (1) patient-related, (2) phone calls, (3)
When a nurse forgets to document on a medication that was given it is looked at as though this was not given. Consequently, the oncoming nurse will notice and give the medication, which could lead to toxicity or even death. We need to make sure that the medication that are being given are documented so that we know and the nurses after us know that the patient received this medication. Another factor that can lead to medication errors in documentation is documenting before giving a medication. This could cause you to think you have already given the medication when you have not given it. Thus it is important to document right after medication has been administered. Lastly, not having an updated MAR can cause medication errors. For example, the patient have allergy that is not list on the MAR or new medication order not written in the