Description of Current Health Care Problem/Issue

Description of Current Health Care Problem/Issue

Description of Current Health Care Problem/Issue

As mentioned in the previous assessment, one of the major tasks in nursing is administering multiple medications to multiple patients, multiple times of the day. Because this is a daily repetitive task, there is a high risk for medication errors to happen. Medication errors happen so frequently that patients can be subjected to at least one medication error every day of hospitalization (Ekkens and Gordon, 2021). According to the National Coordinating Council for Medication Error Reporting and Prevention, medication error is defined as "any preventable event that may cause or lead to inappropriate medication use or patient harm while the medication is in the control of the health care professional, patient or consumer." Medication errors although frequent are under reported and so it is difficult for facilities to resolve this issue without having facts and data to analyze. A well-rounded understanding of nurses and medication errors is the basic foundation needed to be able to decrease medication errors and facilitate a safe environment for nurses to deliver the medications during medication passes. This understanding can also help facilitate staff to feel comfortable and confident to report any medication errors so that correct data can be collected and changes can be made to ensure patient safety from adverse events due to medication errors. Elements of the Problem/Issue Medication errors can be caused by a multitude of things, as medication administration is a multi-disciplinary action involving many steps and health professionals. Medication errors can occur in many of the delivery steps such as prescribing, documenting, transcribing, dispensing, administering and monitoring (Ekkens & Gordon, 2021).