Introduction

Hello class, my name is ............ Welcome to my presentation. My healthcare quality concern is medication errors. In this presentation, I will begin by discussing what medication errors are, their prevalence in the United States, their impact on patients and clinicians, and their cost to society. Next, I will discuss two recommend solutions to prevent and minimize medication errors.

Healthcare Quality Concern

Medication errors are preventable events that may lead to patient harm or inappropriate medication use. These errors can be caused by healthcare professionals, consumers (patients), pharmacists, or other individuals involved in the medication administration and use system. A medication error can happen when a physician or advanced practice nurse prescribes the wrong medication, when a drug is prepared inappropriately or dispensed improperly, or when a patient takes a drug wrongly. These errors can involve all types of drugs including prescription drugs, vitamins, supplements, and over-the-counter drugs. Serious impacts of medication errors include death, disability, hospitalization, and longer stays for those already hospitalized due to complications associated with the medication errors. Medication errors also impact clinicians, especially nurses negatively. Making medication errors is traumatizing and can lead to lower self-esteem and self-confidence which impacts the ability of a nurse to function properly in the workplace (Alrabadi et al., 2020).

Prevalence of medication errors in the United States

The Food and Drug Administration receives over 100,000 reports of medication errors every year. According to surveys about 41% of Americans report having been involved personally or indirectly in a medication error. Every year, over 7 million patients in the United States are affected by medication errors (FDA, 2019, August 23)............... Continue