Article Writing Homework Help

You will prepare and submit a term paper on Medication managment. Your paper should be a minimum of 500 words in length. Overview of the ward Overview of the ward Palliative care is a specialized medical care for people with serious illnesses. This ward has 9 beds and is approved by a team of doctors, nurses and other specialists who work together with patients. Most of the staffs are working their RN nurse and EN nurse. Palliative care handles patients suffering from serious chronic illness such as cancer, cardiac diseases, kidney failure, Alzheimer, Parkinson, respiratory diseases. At the ward, they also accept patients from different wards if they have beds available.

I am going to talk about medication in my presentation.

Medication management

The medication management plan is an initiative of Australian Commissions on Safety and Quality Health Care. The health care provides a standardized form that can be used in nursing, medical and pharmacy (Australian Commission on Safety and Quality Health Care).

The role of the nurse in drug administration

The most important role of a nurse is to administer drugs to patients. They have much knowledge about what drugs to give to patients. Nurses are to be expected to aware of pharmacology, anatomy, physiology and legal issues associated with a particular drug administration.

Clinical setting perspective

WHO follows National Safety and Health Services standards which outlines some key areas for medication safety protocols. These include:

1. Governance and systems for medication safety, dispensing,supplying,administrating, storing,monitoring the effect of medication among other things which ensure safe prescribing.

2. Documentation ensures that the information of a patient’s medication history is available throughout the episodes of care.

3. Medication management process ensuring that current and accurate information is available.

4. Continuity of medication management providing a complete list of a patient’s medication when handing over care or changing medicines.

5. Communication with patient and cares informing the patients about their option, risks and their responsibility for an agreed medicine management plan.

6. In order to achieve those standards, nurses need to follow the 10 rights medication administration.

Personal experience

In Queen Elizabeth’s hospital, the medications should be shacked by two register nurse and countersigned so that medication errors can be avoided.

Before administer IV or IM medications, the nurse has to be check the medication. Correct medication include dose and expiry date. There is need to check right medication by nurses asking patients their full names and date of birth. They also make double check by looking at their wrist bands and comparing it with the medication chart. Correct label bearing the name of medication has to be attached on the IV tubing (Tollefson 2012, p. 86-89). After that, a nurse must check the patient situation and recording the volume of IV in fluid balance chart.

With antibiotic, nurses follow the 10 rights and make double check with other RN nurse and evaluate patient before and after giving this medication.

Statistics of Medication Errors

Medication related incidents were the second highest type of incident report. Medication incident of 20.2% was reported in SA from 1 July to June 2013 (Patient Safety Report 2012, p.58).

Recommendations of safe practice

Nurse must know the rage of safe medication dosage for all patients.

Nurse must notice essential part of the drug, full name of the drug to be administered, dosage, time of administration, route of administration and signature of the person writing the order.

If you are not sure about given or dosage drug, ask your colleague or use other source.

Any error identified has to be reported to the nurse in charge or doctor immediately.

Bibliography

Wall, Ann (2002). Health Care Systems in Liberal Democracies. Routledge.