The importance of medication administration Essay

The importance of medication administration - Essay Example Although errors or mistakes are bound to occur, albeit at reduced frequencies, nurses and other caretakers should be appropriately trained, skilled and well prepared to prevent and manage these errors whenever they occur. This paper discusses the interventions or strategies by which nurses can reduce cases of medication errors. Medication errors are the most common errors in healthcare and medicine fields. The main reason for this situation is the huge number of doses administered and the complexity of the medication system, not to mention the complex nature of diseases and diverse patient situations and needs (Mediscape.org, 2014). Although many organizations and individuals turn to technology as the first resort to preventing and reducing medication errors, there are many other more productive and effective strategies that can be applied. Generally, research shows that the provision of correct medication is the backbone of medication error prevention. Medication should also be given at the right doses. The use of clinical decision support is also an effective method of medication error reduction. It brings information to prescribers at the requisite time, guiding them to prescribe drugs based on laboratory results (Mediscape.org, 2014). The prescriber is also alerted of possible allergic reactions, alter native formula. In spite of medication errors being quite common, many cases are neither noticed nor reported. The reason many cases of medication errors are not reported is that the nurses involved fear for their jobs and professional disciplinary actions such as deregistration. An overall and far-reaching intervention for reducing medication errors is the adoption and instilling of a culture of safety among nursing staffs (Leape, 2002). That is, there should be an organisational patient safety plan, containing the objectives and the mechanisms by which these objectives are to be achieved. The main foundation of this plan should be the