Incorrect Administration Of An S8 Medication †MyAssignmenthelp.com

Question: Discuss about the Incorrect Administration Of An S8 Medication. Answer: Description of the incident This is anursing case study on the incorrect administration of an S8 medication. It involves a newly graduated nurse on her first ward rotation. The nurse has some experience working in a ward since she has been there for almost six months and she has had the support of the Nurse Unit Manager. The nurse also has good working relationship with the other nurses and feels competent enough with the skills acquired over the 6-month period. The fast-paced shifts have also contributed to the working experience and the nurse finds this to be very interesting and even considers high acuity nursing. During one of the morning shifts while doing her medication round, Mary, a colleague of hers asks if they could do a S8 drug check together. Since she also needs the same medication she goes to the S8 cupboard with Mary. Both of them refer to their medication charts and the S8 book so that they can get the necessary medication for their patients. Mary counts the S8 medication required for her patient, Endone 5mg and places it in a medication cup and then she counts the medication required for the nurses patient,Targin 5/2.5mg and places it in a separate cup to avoid any mix up. Mary ensures she locks up the S8 cupboard and carries the patients medication charts along with her while the nurse carries the medication cups. The two nurses first go to Marys patient first. They follow the medication procedures by first completing the patient checks and three drug checks and then the new nurse hands the patient the medication cup with the tablet in it. After ensuring the patient has taken the tablet, they both sign the S8 book to register that the patient had their medication. Both nurses then head to the other patient and they begin by completing patient identification and drug checks. Unfortunately, the new nurse realizes that the medication cup has the Endone tablet instead of the Targin tablet, which was meant for her patient, but instead they had administered it to Marys patient. The new nurse informs Mary that she gave her patient the wrong S8 medication and Mary questions her competence in handling patients medication. The new nurse feels discouraged but she must inform the patient, the doctor and the Unit Nurse Manager immediately so that the appropriate actions can be taken to secure the patient's safety. Factors contributing to the incident In order to avoid administering the wrong medication to a patient, it is important to first carry out the three drug checks effectively. In this case, study, although the three drug checks were performed, it was not done accordingly because the new nurse ended up giving the wrong medication to Marys patient. This procedure requires a nurse to do a triple-check when setting up and before administering medication. It helps to ensure that the right drug and dosage is given to the right patient using the right route and at the right time. The first check involves taking the medication from the storage area and checking that the patients prescription and the medication label match. Before pouring or setting up the medication, counter check for a second time during the preparation of the medications for administration. At the patients bedside, the third and final check is done before giving it to the patient. In this case, Mary together with the new nurse carries out the first check successfully when retrieving their patients medication from the S8 cupboard. They do so by referring to their charts and S8 book to get the appropriate medication. During the preparation, Mary carries out the second check when she counts the S8 medication, Endone 5mg, for her patient and places it in a medication cup (Alsulami, Choonara Conroy, 2014). She then goes ahead to count the medication for the new nurses patient, Targin 5/2.5mg and puts it in a separate medication cup to avoid mixing them up. Labeling each cup with each patients details would have helped even further in avoiding a mix up since both drugs were S8 medications. At the bedside of Marys patient, they both carry out the patient's check and final drug check but the new nurse still administers the wrong medication to Marys patient. During the third check, the new nurse failed to keenly identify the cup with the right S8 medication, Endone 5m g, which was supposed to be given to Marys patient and ended up giving the patient the wrong medication, Targin 5/2.5mg. What I would have done differently In future, if I ever found myself in a similar situation as the new nurse, I would be careful to follow drug preparation and administration protocols to avoid such an incident. The NSQHS standards on medication safety state that, the clinical workforce has to maintain the appropriate protocol when administering medication to avoid errors in medication (Excellence, 2013). Therefore, to avoid these mistakes, first, during the three drug checks, I would have been very attentive to ensure that the prescription matches the medication assigned to each patient. Further, I would follow the rights of medication administration, which are the right: person, medication, dose, time, route, and documentation. This helps to ensure that the right dosage of the correct medication is given to the right patient at the right time using the correct route and that it is accurately documented. Since two patients were both receiving almost similar medications, I would have advised Mary to label each medicat ion cup during the preparation. This way, it would have been easy to tell apart the two S8 medications and give the correct one to the rightful patient (Ashcroft, Lewis, Tully, Wass Dornan, 2015). Additionally, at the bedside, I would have used at least two patient identifiers to reliably identify the patient as the individual for whom each medication was meant for and to match the medication label to them. I would have checked the clients identification number and name either manually, verbally, or electronically to ascertain that all the patients details are correct and that I have the right individual. For instance, I could ask the patient to spell out their last name and check their armband for the same. Moreover, I could have asked Mary to carry out the administration of the medication to the patients, as she was the one who actively participated in the preparation thus, she was more familiar with the medication. This would have helped in decreasing the risk of having a medication error and maintaining clear lines of accountability. Finally, it I important to confirm drugs before administering them to the patient. for instance, after getting the medication from the cupboards, I would have confirmed the medication for my patient then I would have handed Mary the other medication cup containing her patients pills. In the ward, the assigned nurse has the duty of ensuring they administer medication to their patients as per the protocols in place (Westbrook, Lehnbom, Baysari, Braithwaite, Burke Day, 2015). An alternative would have been to let Mary administer the medication to the patient by herself once we got to the patient. I would have also reflected on my pharmaceutical knowledge on the S8 drugs that were being administered to the patients. Pharmaceutical knowledge and experience has been found to reduce the errors in medication in clinical settings (Kim Bates, 2013) References Ashcroft, D. 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