Analyzing a Current Health Care Problem or Issue
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Medication errors constitute the major causes of death in both the United States and the rest of the world. This poses a serious threat to public health. Determining the common causes of medication errors has proven to be difficult for the public health system. Medication errors are described as unintended consequences of a patient obtaining or consuming the incorrect dose or medication that might have been avoided with proper care. This puts the patient’s safety at risk. The goal of this paper is to examine the issue of medication errors in healthcare in detail. A breakdown of this issue’s elements and contextualization of its relevance within the healthcare system will be included. The paper goes on to talk about how to fix the problem of medication errors, which solution works best, what the ethical implications of that solution will be, and how to implement that solution.
Elements of the Problem
There are two key elements pertaining to medication errors in the healthcare system. The lack of proper preparation is the first key factor. Operations to guarantee medicines get to patients in a usable state are a part of medication preparation. Some of the components that are included in medication preparation include an inappropriate method of preparation, poor dosing procedures, improper choice of drugs, the wrong amount of active ingredient in reconstituted drugs, and mistakes caused by the duplication of the drug directions (Escrivá Gracia et al., 2019). These elements have been found to be the prominent factors contributing to medication errors occurring during the preparation of medications prior to their administration.
Mistakes in medicine administration make up the other important component of medication errors. They are a significant contributor to the occurrence of medication mistakes as they arise during the act of dispensing medicine to patients. One of the most significant aspects that fall within this element is when a patient receives the medicine that was intended for another patient. Other errors, such as the wrong route being taken, are also major contributors to the issue. Additionally, medical practitioners could deliver drugs at the wrong rates or for the wrong amount of time, both of which are critical aspects of the issue. Elliott et al. (2018) also demonstrate that dispensing medicine to a patient without first obtaining a prescription is among the most common reasons for medication mistakes. There is also another practice of continuing to administer medicines against the advice of medical professionals to do otherwise.
Analysis
Medication errors are a serious threat to human health and well-being and need the undivided attention of the healthcare community. They are linked to higher healthcare costs and longer hospital stays (Rodziewicz et al., 2022). As a result, it is crucial that everyone involved in the healthcare system have a firm grasp of the possible effects that medication mistakes may have. The satisfaction of both patients and medical staff, as well as issues of patient safety and the cost of treatment, must be taken into account NHS FPX 4000 Assessment 4 Instructions: Analyzing a Current Health Care Problem or Issue. As a result, medical providers are among the most crucial players in reducing medication blunders in healthcare provision. Due to their prominent position in the drug administration and preparation process, they are essential to the development of remedies to this issue.
Considering Options
Medication errors are preventable and may be efficiently addressed via the use of a variety of approaches. Among the most efficient ways to reduce this kind of errors is to educate healthcare providers. Improving the healthcare provider’s awareness of what factors contribute to medication mistakes is a key step in this direction. By doing so, healthcare providers may better understand what causes medication errors and take steps to reduce their occurrence. Enhanced packaging is another approach that has the ability to decrease the occurrence of medication errors. To facilitate this strategy, standardized packaging styles and consistent color coding to clearly denote the various medicines within will be employed. Furthermore, instructing patients on how to take their medications safely is an effective way to reduce the occurrence of medication mistakes.
Solution
Medication errors are a serious issue, and the only way to fix them is to train healthcare workers to be more careful. Because they are the ones actually dispensing or handing out the drugs, health practitioners are crucial links in the supply chain. Medication mistakes may have many causes, but a common one is a lack of understanding about how to properly administer and utilize medications (Escrivá Gracia et al., 2019). Training will be offered to medical providers on how to analyze patient histories to decide which prescriptions should be avoided, as well as how to educate patients and incorporate technology into prescribing processes to improve reliability. Training is a tried-and-true method for solving the issue at hand. For example, one study by Dionisi et al. (2022) found that healthcare practitioners who participated in ongoing training and development had a lower rate of medication mistakes. In addition, research conducted by Drovandi et al. (2018) found that the training provided to healthcare practitioners helped patients better comprehend their medications and stick to their treatment plans. This collection of studies demonstrates conclusively that training healthcare personnel is a viable solution.
If medication errors are not addressed, there is a possibility that the healthcare institution and the associated medical workers may face a number of quality difficulties. Failing to solve this health problem leads to the possibility of adverse effects on the patient’s health, including mortality, and there is also the possibility that those implicated could face legal repercussions.
Ethical Implications
The implementation of the solution might have a number of ethical repercussions, one of which would be that it would compromise the patient’s right to confidentiality. In order to prevent unintended consequences from medications, clinicians will require access to patient medical records. If more people have access to patient’s records, it might raise the privacy risk associated with those records being handled. Furthermore, medical providers may need to put extra time and energy into the training. This may lead them to experience burnout or weariness. As such, this may be an indication that the institution is putting personnel in danger of suffering from burnout by subjecting them to risk factors NHS FPX 4000 Assessment 4 Instructions: Analyzing a Current Health Care Problem or Issue.
Implementation
All relevant parties will need to work together to make the training of healthcare providers a success. As a result, it is going to be very necessary to make certain that the medical practitioners working in the institution are aware of the importance of the changes needed to prevent medication errors. This may be achieved by having practitioners help pinpoint the source and scope of the issue of medication errors and suggest possible interventions. For this to be successful, practitioners will need training from specialists in the area of medication mistake prevention. It would be crucial to incorporate all the administrators of the medical institution in the training scheme to serve as role models and resources for the practitioners.
Conclusion
Mistakes in preparing or administering the incorrect drug have harmful effects on patients. They have long been a major concern in public health, ranking among the most serious threats to patients. This means that professionals in the field of healthcare need to actively seek out and implement solutions. Among the many possible solutions to the issue at hand, training healthcare workers are among the most promising. That is because training may help healthcare providers get better at preventing and correcting medication errors by zeroing in on the causes of such errors.
References
Dionisi, S., Giannetta, N., Liquori, G., De Leo, A., D’Inzeo, V., Orsi, G. B., Di Muzio, M., Napoli, C., & Di Simone, E. (2022). Medication errors in intensive care units: An umbrella review of control measures. Healthcare, 10(7), 1221. https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare10071221
Drovandi, A., Robertson, K., Tucker, M., Robinson, N., Perks, S., & Kairuz, T. (2018). A systematic review of clinical pharmacist interventions in pediatrics hospital patients. European journal of pediatrics , 177 (8), 1139-1148. https://europepmc.org/article/MED/16682568
Elliott, R. A., Camacho, E., Jankovic, D., Sculpher, M. J., & Faria, R. (2020). Economic analysis of the prevalence and clinical and economic burden of medication error in England. BMJ Quality & Safety, 30(2), 96-105. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjqs-2019-010206
Escrivá Gracia, J., Brage Serrano, R., & Fernández Garrido, J. (2019). Medication errors and drug knowledge gaps among critical-care nurses: A mixed multi-method study. BMC Health Services Research, 19(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-019-4481-7
Rodziewicz, T. L., Houseman, B., & Hipskind, J. E. (2022). Medical error reduction and prevention. In StatPearls [Internet] . StatPearls Publishing. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK499956/
NHS FPX 4000 Assessment 4 Instructions: Analyzing a Current Health Care Problem or Issue
Assessment 4 Instructions: Analyzing a Current Health Care Problem or Issue
Write a 4-6 page analysis of a current problem or issue in health care, including a proposed solution and possible ethical implications.
Introduction
In your health care career, you will be confronted with many problems that demand a solution. By using research skills, you can learn what others are doing and saying about similar problems. Then, you can analyze the problem and the people and systems it affects. You can also examine potential solutions and their ramifications. This assessment allows you to practice this approach with a real-world problem.
Instructions
Note: The requirements outlined below correspond to the grading criteria in the scoring guide. At a minimum, be sure to address each point. In addition, you are encouraged to review the performance-level descriptions for each criterion to see how your work will be assessed.
Describe the health care problem or issue you selected for use in Assessment 2 (from the Assessment Topic Areas media piece) and provide details about it.
Explore your chosen topic. For this, you should use the first four steps of the Socratic Problem-Solving Approach to aid your critical thinking. This approach was introduced in Assessment 2.
Identify possible causes for the problem or issue.
Use scholarly information to describe and explain the health care problem or issue and identify possible causes for it.
Identify at least three scholarly or academic peer-reviewed journal articles about the topic.
You may find the How Do I Find Peer-Reviewed Articles? library guide helpful in locating appropriate references.
You may use articles you found while working on Assessment 2 or you may search the Capella library for other articles.
You may find the applicable Undergraduate Library Research Guide helpful in your search.
Review the Think Critically About Source Quality to help you complete the following:
Assess the credibility of the information sources.
Assess the relevance of the information sources.
Analyze the health care problem or issue.
Describe the setting or context for the problem or issue.
Describe why the problem or issue is important to you.
Identify groups of people affected by the problem or issue.
Provide examples that support your analysis of the problem or issue.
Discuss potential solutions for the health care problem or issue.
Describe what would be required to implement a solution.
Describe potential consequences of ignoring the problem or issue.
Provide the pros and cons for one of the solutions you are proposing.
Explain the ethical principles (Beneficence, Nonmaleficence, Autonomy, and Justice) if potential solution was implemented.
Describe what would be necessary to implement the proposed solution.
Explain the ethical principles that need to be considered (Beneficence, Nonmaleficence, Autonomy, and Justice) if the potential solution was implemented.
Provide examples from the literature to support the points you are making.
Example Assessment: You may use the following to give you an idea of what a Proficient or higher rating on the scoring guide would look like:
Assessment 4 Example [PDF] .
Additional Requirements
Your NHS FPX 4000 Assessment 4 Instructions: Analyzing a Current Health Care Problem or Issue assessment should also meet the following requirements:
Length: 4–6 typed, double-spaced pages, not including the title page and reference page.
Font and font size: Times New Roman, 12 point.
APA tutorial: Use the APA Style Paper Tutorial [DOCX] for guidance.
Written communication: Write clearly and logically, with correct use of spelling, grammar, punctuation, and mechanics.
Using outside sources: Integrate information from outside sources into academic writing by appropriately quoting, paraphrasing, and summarizing, following APA style.
References: Integrate information from outside sources to include at least three scholarly or academic peer-reviewed journal articles and three in-text citations within the paper.
APA format: Follow current APA guidelines for in-text citations of outside sources in the body of your paper and also on the reference page.
Organize your paper using the following structure and headings:
Title page. A separate page.
Introduction. A brief one-paragraph statement about the purpose of the paper.
Elements of the problem/issue. Identify the elements of the problem or issue or question.
Analysis. Analyze, define, and frame the problem or issue.
Considering options. Consider solutions, responses, or answers.
Solution. Choose a solution, response, or answer.
Ethical implications. Ethical implications of implementing the solution.
Implementation. Implementation of the potential solution.
Conclusion. One paragraph.
Competencies Measured:
By successfully completing this assessment, you will demonstrate your proficiency in the following course competencies and scoring guide criteria:
Competency 1: Apply information literacy and library research skills to obtain scholarly information in the field of health care.
Use scholarly information to describe and explain a health care problem or issue and identify possible causes for it.
Competency 2: Apply scholarly information through critical thinking to solve problems in the field of health care.
Analyze a health care problem or issue by describing the context, explaining why it is important and identifying populations affected by it.
Discuss potential solutions for a health care problem or issue and describe what would be required to implement a solution.
Competency 3: Apply ethical principles and academic standards to the study of health care.
Explain the ethical principles (Beneficence, Nonmaleficence, Autonomy, and Justice) if potential solution was implemented
Competency 4: Write for a specific audience , in appropriate tone and style, in accordance with Capella’s writing standards.
Write clearly and logically, with correct use of spelling, grammar, punctuation, and mechanics.
Write following APA style for in-text citations, quotes, and references.
NHS FPX 4000 Assessment 4 Instructions: Analyzing a Current Health Care Problem or Issue
