Name: Samana Sainju
Student Number: 220195204
Unit: HSNS206
Academic written assignment 2
1. Differentiate the roles and responsibilities of the registered nurse compared to those of a
nursing student with reference to responsibility and accountability for medication
administration.
2. Identify and discuss the contributing factors for medication errors within nursing
practice?
3. Discuss and critically analyse the relevant medication policies, guidelines and Registered
nurse standards for practice (NMBA, 2016) in relation to the case study.
Unit Coordinator: Sally Bistro
According to Henderson, Nurses unique function is to take care of the patients and providing
a hand for the performance of day to day activities and gain partial independence or dignified
death. Nurses profession is to take care of an overall aspect of making an individual
recovered from the disease. Out of various approaches one crucial task includes medications.
In this case study when the medical officer diagnosed a urinary tract infection (UTI) and
prescribed medication, Nurses simply give away the medicines straight. Patient has faced
drug interactions which happen to be known once the patient is discharged. Lots of cases are
constantly emerging due to the change in drug regimen ending up harming patients.
According to The Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care
(2006) “Between 10% and 67% of medication histories have at least one error, and up to 33%
of these errors have the potential to cause patient harm.” From the prescriber’s point of view
there should be the implementation of formal process which includes comparison of
documented patient’s history of medication and current prescription of medications along
with their clinical condition. In Case of discrepancies, the case should be discussed with
previous prescriber or appropriate documentation should be done for the change in
medications. Which means the process of prescribing medications should be well discussed
with the medical team ( doctors, GP, radiologist, Pharmacist microbiologist etc) and after a
review the medications should be added changed or modified.
Once the drug is prescribed, instead of giving away the medicine right away by the
nurses she should be aware of the medicines that patient had been using and should know
the possible drug interactions. This concept was further explained by Australian Nursing
and Midwifery Federation. Nursing Guidelines (2013). Every time when doctor
prescribes the medicine, nurses should analyse procedures and medications orders. Better
to be safe than sorry, which means nurses should seek for clarifications when the
treatments are ambiguous which might end up with a legal issue if not being resolved.
Registered Nurses have the rights of administering the medications in the facility which
must be ensured if they have appropriate qualifications, training, and demonstrated
current competency and to comply with local protocols. Furthermore, facilities must
ensure all persons authorised to administer medicines have completed training that are
necessary for competencies and relevant workplace safety such as infection control
practices to complete specific tasks, and as appropriate be re-assessed and re-accredited
for the tasks .Likewise, for the safe administration of an individual medication or class of
medication, higher level of skill may be needed or for carrying out certain clinical
functions, such as intravenous administration. According to best professional practice
guidelines, the level of medical back-up required should also be considered relevant to
each clinical situation along with direct supervision by the appropriate authorised person.
A trainee or student in any category since they are on their training phases without
holding certain degrees and trainings they are not regarded as a competent ones so they
are not allowed to administer medication without supervision.
Lastly, contributing factors to medication errors, labelled as Individual factors, which
says errors are inevitable, and the other one is nurses interpretation such as
miscommunication factors, like misreading medication package label miscalculation of
medication dosology, non-adherence of the proper steps of medication preparation
(checking-rechecking, application of the five rights personal neglect, difficulties in using
devices that are sophisticated, nurses' physical exhaustion, and problems with physicians
illegible handwriting, unclear verbal orders during prescription and increased workload
related to "high patient to nurse ratio etc.
Therefore, for the reduction of medicine error rate different interventions as setting up
policy, continuous supervision and training can be accomplished along with preventive
measures.
References
Athanasakis, Efstratios; Karavasiliadou, Savvato (2014). An inside look into the factors
contributing to medication errors in the clinical nursing practice, 8, 32-44. Retrieved
from [Link]
[Link]/docview/1509155972/fulltext/D934924EDF954A8FPQ/1?
accountid=17227
Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation. Nursing Guidelines (2013) Management of
medicines in aged care. Melbourne. Retrieved from
[Link]
Policy Directive (2013).Medication Handling in NSW Public Health Facilities New South
Wales, Australia.
The Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care (2006). Medication
[Link] from [Link]
work/medication-safety/medication-reconciliation/
The Department of Health. (2003). Medication Handling in NSW Public Health Facilities :
Medication Reconciliation .Retrieved from
[Link]
The Department of Health. (2003). Medication Handling in NSW Public Health Facilities :
Administering Medications .Retrieved from
[Link]
