Common Medication Errors, Policies, and Nursing Leadership

What Are The Common Medication Error In Your Present Area Assignment?

What Policy Does The Organization Implement In Terms Of Medication Error? Explain The Mechanics Of Its Implementation.

 What Recommendations Can You Give In Order To Improve It?

In the paper by Pamela Treister, the author focuses on the retention of knowledge on medication administration. This article focused on aspects of nursing leadership on undergraduate baccalaureate students of nursing at a suburban private university in New York. Though this paper undertakes a significant contribution of leadership in medication administration and knowledge retention, it ignores the other dimensions that measure the effectiveness of knowledge while administering medication to patients. These students were in their senior semester in nursing school while this project was undertaken. There were certain alterations in the curriculum that was implemented to assist these students. Apart from mediation using leadership, a quality improvement project was initiated. This project found that altering two specific learning strategies during the spring semester of junior year enhanced retention of knowledge during the fall semester of the senior year. The primary advantage discussed in this article is the use of technology and its challenges. Several changes took place during the nursing program with the assistance of nursing leadership.

Analyzing this article in terms of reaction paper style, it can be said that nursing leadership had been used. Though the nursing leadership style had been adopted, it is not an effective style while transiting an organization towards a change. While the article carefully recognizes the integral factor in adapting a change, such as a change in curriculum and use of technology, yet the core focus of this paper which is the role of leadership has not been adequately explored. A transformational leadership style could have brought about greater amounts of change in the perspective of medication administration and quality improvisation.   

The type of medication administration during the senior semester in nursing school has been undertaken in this study. This type of medication administration is basic though quite important and relevant for learning in later years in nursing practice. In case knowledge retention can be enhanced by way of nursing leadership then it can overall improvise medication administration and overall safety in using medication.

In the present area of the assignment, some of the most common types of medication errors are providing patients with the wrong medication altogether. This type of errors mainly arises due to similar names of medications. Prescribing the wrong dosage of medication is another error where a nurse might give too little or too much medication. This might result in the patient not receiving treatment from a certain condition or lead to overdose. Ignoring patient medical histories leading to an allergic reaction in a patient in another type of medication error. Providing medication that cannot be taken together where a nurse might provide medication at the wrong time. Improper preparation is where mediation needs to be prepared in a specific wat and patients are harmed when pharmacists make mistakes in preparing medications.

Article 2

Organizations implement several policies in terms of medication errors and to avoid them. These policies are documenting the administration of medication and notification to the supervisor. Medication errors can be reduced or avoided in case organization-specific policies are adopted by a recording of all medications that have been administered to all patients. The mechanics of implementing the policy is to record all medication administered and then notify the supervisor of the same. The supervisor checks for errors and then takes the necessary course of action in case of any errors identified.

The article by Chenjuan, Jingjing, and Marjorie identifies the impacts of unit collaboration and nursing leadership upon nurse quality of care and outcomes. Healthcare in recent times has undergone a significant transformation, where the contribution from nursing leaders and care providers remains underscored. This paper focuses on the importance of collaboration amongst nursing leaders and the workforce but grossly overlooks the style of leadership applied. This reflects limitations in the quality of care and outcomes. This research collected data from 9742 nurses across 1228 units from 200 acute care hospitals from across 41 states. Then the multilevel linear regression method was applied for data analysis. The collaboration between nurse-nurse and nurse-physician and nursing leadership was measured. The details regarding such collaborations are not indicated in this study and overlook other factors present in the delivery of patient care. The study's outcomes were related to job satisfaction, nurse-reported quality of care and intent to leave. The results from the study indicated that in cases where nursing leadership was strong, there was lower intention amongst nurses to leave, with higher job satisfaction with a better quality of care in units. Hence this study reflected that a caring environment with strong collaboration amongst nursing leaders and the workforce can finally lead to a high quality of care.

This article identifies the barriers to effective collaboration between nursing leaders and the workforce to be many. The barrier identified is a lack of coordination. While nursing leaders are expected to work with the workforce, yet their job roles are not quite coordinated. Moreover, this paper fails to identify workload as a major barrier in effective collaboration and also shifts. While nursing leaders might be present only in some shifts, it might emerge to be impossible to coordinate with all the varied workforce all the time.

The leadership behavior of nurses depicted here is that of the nursing leadership style. While it is a well-acknowledged style in the current healthcare system, organizations need to adopt a transformational style of leadership. Transformational leadership behavior in nurses is effective in this domain of rapidly transformational healthcare organizations.

Article 3

The results of this study depicted that the collaboration of nursing leaders with the nursing workforce had varied positive outcomes. These outcomes were related to lower intention of leaving, the better quality of care in the unit and higher job satisfaction. However, this study did not take into consideration the other factors that might have also been a factor during this study that could have led to increased job satisfaction with the lower intention of leaving.  

In my current area of responsibility, the barriers that might lead to poor collaboration amongst nurses are lack of training in interprofessional collaboration, ambiguity in role and leadership, lack of clearly stated, measurable and shared purpose, health care team being too large or too small. These are some of the visible barriers that lead to poor collaboration amongst nurses in the organization.

A recommendation to improve or reduce barriers in nursing collaboration is to provide interprofessional training. Focused interprofessional training and routine communication can assist in the reduction of barriers in nursing collaboration. More definitive roles for nursing collaboration can bring about effectiveness amongst nursing leaders and the workforce.

The article Castillo and James discuss ways in which ward managers can become effective leaders. Performance is the most integral aspect of clinical leaders and has a direct association with hospital service. Ward managers comprise the largest management group in the NHS and contribute sustainable performance. A program was developed for these staff such that they can emerge as effective leaders. The scope of this article believes that large-scale development cannot be attained through top-down programs but it needs to arise from the front line. When staff is developed simultaneously in different disciplines then they can coordinate with one another in a better manner. Overall the program aimed at the need to equip frontline leaders such that they can perform in a better manner in the future.

Values, attitudes, and behavior of the head nurse were seen to be stringent and not prepared to take up any changes. Head nurses identified leadership roles with the management. They were not prepared to take up leadership roles or any additional responsibilities that might increase the burden of their overall work roles. While this paper views values, attitudes, and behaviors of ward managers are important for making an overall contribution to the performance and outcomes.

Based on experience and observation, some characteristics of good and efficient head nurse noted is the ability to take up leadership roles. Ability to assume additional roles and responsibilities in the ward that can effectively contribute to performance. Effective performance of head nurse is crucial and integral for the ability of performance in any particular ward. Hence the characteristics identified can enhance the overall efficacy and effectiveness of the organization.

Reference

Castillo, C., & James, S. (2013). How to turn ward managers into leaders. Nursing times, 109(9), 18-19.

Ma, C., Shang, J., & Bott, M. J. (2015). Linking unit collaboration and nursing leadership to nurse outcomes and quality of care. JONA: The Journal of Nursing Administration, 45(9), 435-442. DOI: 10.1097/NNA.0000000000000229

Treister, P. (2017). Leadership, Medication Administration, and Knowledge Retention: A Quality Improvement Project. Journal of Educational Multimedia and Hypermedia, 26(1), 89-99.