Medication administration errors are a common form of medication errors. They represent the errors that occur during the processing of administrating a drug to a patient. According to Baraki et al. (2018), this malpractice takes numerous forms, including administering medicine at the wrong time, in the wrong dosage, or at an inexact rate in the case of intravenous medications. Such an occurrence may have adverse effects on the patients, including morbidity and increases in the cost and period of hospitalization. Consequently, it is necessary to address the underlying causes of recurring medication administration errors. More critically, it is vital to examine interprofessional collaboration’s role as this approach has been shown to yield positive results.
Numerous strategies to address the issue exist. However, it is worth noting that no single approach is effective; instead, it may be necessary to combine multiple strategies. One such strategy entails applying the five rights, namely, the right patient, drug, route, time, and dose (Smeulers et al., 2015). Thus, nurses and providers at the workplace should undergo retraining on how to implement the five rights. Secondly, the interprofessional collaboration team should develop concise policies on Medication Administration Records (MARs). A MAR is essentially a patient drug chart. Policies concerning the use of this tool provide guidelines on how to double-check the provided medications and how to undertake the process of reconciliation, especially when transferring a patient from one department to another or Healthcare Organization (HCO). Thirdly, the policy should include a breakdown of all forms of documentation required while a patient is receiving treatment at the facility. Such a step is critical because it forms the basis for accountability and follow up in case of an issue.
Further, the team should propose that the organization should adopt a comprehensive medication administration policy. This strategy is useful because it defines the guidelines necessary for storage, ordering, administration, transcription, and documentation of drugs. Thus, tools such as drug guides would be provided for in the strategy. For the plan mentioned above to be achieved, the interprofessional collaboration team needs to draw its membership from all the relevant stakeholders.
The team’s membership should reflect the entire spectrum of individuals involved in the provision of care. Consequently, its membership should include a nurse, nurse manager, doctor, and pharmacist. Each of the team members should have a valid license from their respective professional bodies. The nurses’ responsibilities would be to advise on the challenges they face when administering drugs to patients. Additionally, they would be required to notify on how the other stakeholders’ actions contribute to the issue. Pharmacists would be responsible for brainstorming on the possible contraindications of drugs; hence, providing a basis for identifying the occurrence of a medication administration error. The role of doctors should be to evaluate how their profession can improve the prescription of medicines, including indicating the correct dosages more clearly.
The team needs to work together. Accordingly, it is vital to encourage a consistent flow of information among the team members. Allocating specific activities for each member would provide a basis for accountability. Moreover, the setting of metrics and milestones to be achieved would be a means of following up on the team’s progress. Given the importance of communication in interprofessional collaboration, it is crucial to encourage its use. Therefore, encouraging politeness and decorum when exchanging information is necessary. Further, the development of communication protocols should occur. For instance, the approved means of communication for the team members should be defined in advance.
Reference
Baraki, Z., Abay, M., Tsegay, L., Gerensea, H., Kebede, A., & Teklay, H. (2018). Medication administration error and contributing factors among pediatric inpatient in public hospitals of Tigray, northern Ethiopia. BMC Pediatrics, 18(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12887-018-1294-5