StudentShare
Contact Us
Sign In / Sign Up for FREE
Search
Go to advanced search...
Free

The Responsibility of Distributing Medications to Patients - Essay Example

Cite this document
Summary
The paper "The Responsibility of Distributing Medications to Patients" states that for each hospital visit that results in hospitalization, the commensurate medication prescribed during in patient care should be treated as a phenomenon, and warrants the same protocols provided in a research study. …
Download full paper File format: .doc, available for editing
GRAB THE BEST PAPER98.7% of users find it useful
The Responsibility of Distributing Medications to Patients
Read Text Preview

Extract of sample "The Responsibility of Distributing Medications to Patients"

The nurse, who is responsible for medication distribution while they are in the hospital has been identified as the source of significant errors when dealing with the responsibility of distributing medication. Nurses play a significant role in the life cycle of medication. The effectiveness of the medication, the dosage of the medication, and whether or not the patient receives the medication at all affect the way a medication is perceived by the patient.

The errors that have been identified have been those related to the inaccuracy of the dosage level and ensuring the appropriate people receive the correct medications. The effects of these errors have been the discontinuation of several medications, such as in the case of medication that treats Atrial Filibration. The patients that were receiving prescribed doses of amiodarone, flecainide, and sotalol took their care into their own hands when they started receiving “adverse effects” from these medications. With dosage modification, the medication could have been beneficial. The adherence to proper distribution Dosage levels influences real and perceived pharmaceutical benefits. If medication is misdiagnosed it affects how well the medication treats the imbalance and may have an impact on how a patient feels physically from day to day.
A Study that was recently completed in Australia described how older Australian were receiving antidepressant medications that treat conditions that were different from the conditions that the patients were experiencing. This is a prime example of what causes the discontinuation of potentially useful medication that has been given a false perception due to being in the hands of patients it was never meant to treat. One of the most effective marketing tools is word of mouth. This is a tool that can either generate a frenzy of referrals or a significant negative impression depending on the results of the medication.
The cause of the distribution errors generated by the nurses has been distractions. The distractions are from the hospital staff in general and the doctors in particular. The doctors are distracting the nurses with questions about the state of being of the patients who have received the medications they prescribe during their stay in the hospital. They are requiring the nurses to make judgments that they may not be qualified to make.

A pilot program was recently implemented in a pediatric teaching hospital. The name of this program is known as” medication at the bedside”. This program incorporates the pharmacy technician into the distribution process. The results have been a reduction in errors about the distribution of medication, as well as an increase in job satisfaction as expressed by the nurses. The nurses at this hospital say they have more time to spend with patients and it opens the line of communication they have with both the patients and the pharmacy technicians. This development is a positive step forward in gathering the type of information the doctors are looking for after they prescribe medication. With more time to spend with patients, they can make more observations, which in turn provide the doctors with more details with which to make decisions about the state of being of their patients. This does not negate the possibility that the nurses still may be making judgments that strictly should be the responsibility of the doctors. The type of distribution errors that were reduced as those associated with the waste of medication and the reduction in the number of errors being made. This development is significant when addressing the trend of patients taking a proactive stance in their treatment. The program has been designated a success which implies that the patients are recovering from their conditions. In the case of children, which is whom this pilot program serves, the parents are the ones making decisions about whether or not their children are recovering from their previous conditions. The waste reduction implies the parents have decided that the medication is helping rather than exacerbating the problem. The use of pharmacy technicians is a relatively new technique that may result in the same burnout felt by nurses. Why is this happening? Perhaps it is happening because someone else is still making the judgments that doctors should be making themselves. What we might see in the future is a reduction in the errors made by nurses and an increase in distribution errors made by pharmacy technicians due to distractions. The doctors may move from questioning the nurse about the state of being of their patients and now has a new middleman in the distribution process from which to retrieve answers from.

For the time being this pilot program is a success, and has revealed some very important facts. These facts are that nurses are not satisfied with their role as medication distributors although they have traditionally been the ones to implement the treatments that doctors prescribe. This makes buy-in easier to make the changes necessary for a higher quality of care.
The act of distributing medication while a patient is in the hospital should not be part of a job description because it is the act of distributing drugs that assumes a nurse’s skill set that is inaccurate and ill-defined. As an alternative solution, the act of distributing medication after diagnosis should be the next step in the clinical treatment process that should be administered by doctors. Read More
Cite this document
  • APA
  • MLA
  • CHICAGO
(“Service change Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words”, n.d.)
Service change Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words. Retrieved from https://studentshare.org/miscellaneous/1569182-service-change
(Service Change Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 Words)
Service Change Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 Words. https://studentshare.org/miscellaneous/1569182-service-change.
“Service Change Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 Words”, n.d. https://studentshare.org/miscellaneous/1569182-service-change.
  • Cited: 0 times

CHECK THESE SAMPLES OF The Responsibility of Distributing Medications to Patients

Concordance with Medication in Type 2 Diabetes

The patients usually get tired of the limited food varieties available to them and get bored of the numerous medicines they are bound to take and so they are always in search of an escape from this strict routine.... It is of immense importance that the patients are somehow informed about the adverse effects that they would have to face if they do not comply with the medication regimen given to them and this can be beautifully and completely achieved by printing different slogans on the mug and distributing them among the patients....
8 Pages (2000 words) Essay

Nursing practice and health care

Obvious benefits to patients of shorter hospital stays include their savings as consumers of health care treatments and care, and that shorter stays are much preferred by patients in general.... Discharge from hospital can be a time of confusion and anxiety for patients and their families.... For most patients, the treatment they have received will be a success and they will be able to return to their usual way of living.... The issue of discharge and its effects on patients is critical to discuss as most patients want to return to life as it was previous to their admission....
12 Pages (3000 words) Essay

Requirement for Capable Personnel: The Medication Technician

A medication technician is involved in distributing and administering medications to patients.... In hospitals and healthcare settings, there is a high requirement for a capable person who can distribute and administer medications to patients.... edication technicians administering medications to patients should be free of communicable infections such as sore throat, cold or open lesions (Durgin and Hanan, 2004).... They assist patients in consuming medications topically, orally, or intravenously....
7 Pages (1750 words) Essay

Medications in Work Environment

I will always be keen to note that patients are prescribed a range of drugs simultaneously.... The paper "medications in Work Environment" discusses that the patient and the family members will be educated on the generic name of the drug a patient is allergic to besides possible cross-reacting drugs.... I should ensure that drugs that appear in single-dose are sealed as required without tempering and not store excess medications from single doses....
8 Pages (2000 words) Assignment

Medication Errors in Emegency Department

"Medication Errors in the Emergency Department" paper examines causes and to identify programs to reduce medication errors in the emergency department.... The research questions guiding the research proposal are: what are the causes of medication errors in the emergency department.... ... ... ... In recent years with the onset of computers being used for medication management, there has been a great deal of research supporting the safety of Computer Physician Order Entry (CPOE)....
8 Pages (2000 words) Research Proposal

Medication and Safe Administration - Roles and Responsibilities of Nurses, Doctors, and Pharmacists

It is the responsibility of the nurse to ensure that patients are clearly identified before medication administration.... he nurse is often the party in the medication hierarchy that interacts more often with the patient and on whom the responsibility leans more of identifying and remediating errors in prescribing and drug distribution.... Medical therapy has increasingly been relied upon in the contemporary medical realm as the primary intervention for most medical conditions, and patients consuming this form of medical intervention are exposed to potential risks....
8 Pages (2000 words) Essay

The Role of Nurses in Medication Errors and the Impact of These on the Health Care System

he key factors that are mainly associated with various medication errors include; medications that are rarely prescribed or used, medications with similar packaging or similar names, commonly used medications such as antibiotics that are allergic to many patients, and medications that require tests to be carried out to ensure that proper therapeutic levels are well maintained.... percent because they are mostly identified before they reach the patients or before they cause permanent harm to the patients....
8 Pages (2000 words) Essay

Nursing Prioritization of Health Issues

aking numerous drugs for multiple conditions of health raises ADRs' risk, particularly in older patients.... gnatavicus & Workman (2010), state that the respiration rate particularly, has been identified particularly as a sensitive indicator of clinical deterioration in patients who are critically ill....
6 Pages (1500 words) Literature review
sponsored ads
We use cookies to create the best experience for you. Keep on browsing if you are OK with that, or find out how to manage cookies.
Contact Us