Medication Mistake and Legal Difficulties
Medication mistake is one of the legal difficulties affecting nursing profession, and it happened to one of the nurses who works at the hospital near my house. Medication error is a breakdown in the treatment process that causes or threatens harm to patients. This research focuses on a prescription error that resulted in an allergic reaction in the patient. The prescribing error happened because the nurse administered the incorrect medicine based on inadequate patient information.
Importance of Proper Documentation
The pharmaceutical error may have been avoided if patient information and each drug administered to the patient had been documented. Proper documentation of medications administered to patients by the nurses prevents the inappropriate selection of medication (Dalmolin & Goldim, 2013). Patient information entails weight, diagnosis, allergies, pregnancy status, and age. Accurate and proper documentation is vital and should involve the accurate recording of essential information of drug which includes the drug's name, dose, time, route, patient response as well as the refusal of the medication by the patient. However, the nurse lacked information concerning the kind of medication that causes an allergic reaction to a patient (Ehsani et al., 2013). Hence the nurse could have ensured that she has all the essential information regarding the medication that causes an allergic reaction to the patient.
Resolving the Medication Error
The medication error was resolved through administering antihistamines to relieve the patient from mild allergic reactions. Various medications can lead to an allergic reaction on the patient's body due to an allergen (Ebrahimpour, Shahrokhi & Ghodousi, 2014 p.401). Different medications for allergy symptoms can relieve a patient from allergic reactions. Therefore, the patient's condition improved resulting in a positive outcome.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the medication error sometimes can be prevented if proper care is taken by the nurse before giving medication to their patients. For instance, when a nurse lacks information regarding their patient's and the kind of drugs causes allergy symptoms on their body, prescribing error occurs that may cause harm to the patient.
References
Dalmolin, G. R., & Goldim, J. R. (2013). Medication errors in hospitals: bioethical issues. Revista da Associacao Medica Brasileira (1992), 59(2), 95.
Ebrahimpour, F., Shahrokhi, A., & Ghodousi, A. (2014). Patients’ safety and nurses’ medication administration errors. IJFM, 20(1), 401-408.
Ehsani, S. R., Cheraghi, M. A., Nejati, A., Salari, A., Esmaeilpoor, A. H., & Nejad, E. M. (2013). Medication errors of nurses in the emergency department. Journal of medical ethics and history of medicine, 6.
