Effectiveness of Drug Round Tabards
Medical errors occur in most healthcare administration activities, and the errors may have adverse effects on patient safety. Research shows that the probability of medical errors in the administration of drugs to occur is between 5% and 25%, and only 19% of these errors get reported. It could show that there are more medical errors that occur, which could endanger patients’ safety. The nurses are responsible for the administration of medicines; thus this paper will discuss the interruptions that could get eliminated to ensure that there are no medical errors by nurses.
The research was conducted in three wards of one hospital to determine the interruption frequency during medical application and the relationship between the interruptions and medication administration errors. three hundred and thirteen medical administrations were used in the observation. The tabards were the interventions used to regulate the rate of breaks, thus ensuring a reduction in the occurrence of medical errors. The study used a mixed approach method during the three-period study approaches, where pre and post design were used- the first period involved the collection of medication administration errors and interruptions to be observed with the tabards. The second period is where the nurse’s expressions and perceptions were gotten, in the third period, the nurses’ overall perceptions and attitudes in a focus group were obtained. Data was obtained from eight types of verbal and non-verbal categories. Six out of the nine nurses got used to enter the observed data; it was then entered into a computer, verified by another observer, and finally, the focus group.
Conclusions
The tabards were valid in improving medication administration process by reducing the medical errors by the nurses. The research identified that their fellow staff mostly caused the highest number of interruptions for nurses, and thus, they were able to avoid such errors.
It can also be concluded that the nurses had perception and expressions on wearing the tabards. Some were eager to wear them while others got objected to it since they felt uncomfortable and awkward. It shows that enough preparation was required to ensure that the usage of the tabards to be practical. The nurses raised issues of hygiene and that the tabards were not personal. The focus groups also said that the sharing of the tabards can be dangerous since it could increase the rate of infections. Therefore, such concerns should get addressed to ensure the effectiveness of the process.
Another conclusion is that the regression model shows a linear relationship between the interruptions and the medical administration errors, but the error was small. It shows that other factors contributed to the medical administration process other than the tabards. The possible factors include that the supervisors were more involved during the round administration of drugs; thus, they were more careful during the process. Another possible factor is that the nurses were too cautious during the process; thus, there were few errors. To ensure that the method is effective, it should be performed impromptu to ensure there are no exaggerations on the results obtained.
Implication of Practice
The application of the drug tabards in hospitals led to fewer errors in the administration of drugs and interruptions. Thus the decrease in outages cannot be used to explain the decrease in medical administration errors. It means that other factors contributed to the decline. The hospitals need to use the tabards to ensure that medical administration errors get reduced. The tabards have positive implications since it increases dedication and awareness among the health practitioners.
Another suggestion is that the use of the tabards should be made personal. High levels of hygiene among nurses should be maintained to ensure that the rate of infection caused by sharing the tabards get reduced. Management should pay significant attention to the tabards since they got numerous advantages.
Further research should get conducted to identify the crucial interventions that help reduce medication administration errors and interruptions. The study will ensure that hospitals only use the responses that are beneficial to them; thus, no time is wasted on non-beneficial interventions.
Conclusion
The round drug tabards are essential in medical care. Thus, they should be used to reduce medication administration errors and increase the quality of care that nurses give to patients. The tabards also ensure that there is the security of the patients, raise dedication and awareness of the practitioners; thus, they should be recommended.