Essay Sample on Medical Errors: A Major Challenge for Healthcare

Introduction

Medical errors are a major challenge that affects the healthcare sector, with patients living with consequences that affect the health of the patient. Medical errors are preventable, and they bring adverse effects to the patients where the patients do not get the medication that they require to treat the illness that they suffer from. There are different types of medical errors, which include wrong diagnosis, inadequate monitoring after surgical procedures, wrong medical test results, delayed treatment, wrong medications, and infections acquired in health facilities (Latimer et al., 2017). Nurses are responsible for the majority of activities that happen in health facilities; hence they have the responsibility of ensuring that medical errors do not happen. Measures need to be taken to help nurses ensure medical errors are limited, and patient safety is guaranteed.

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Medical Errors

Different medical errors affect patients differently depending on how the error will continue to affect the health of the person. Nurses do much of the work in helping patients get medical services; therefore, they are in a better position to prevent medical errors and ensure that patient safety is guaranteed (Latimer et al., 2017). There are different factors that contribute to medical errors. The factors include a lack of proper training to equip the nurses with the skills that they require to do their work. Some medical errors happen because doctors do not have the skills and expertise required to handle complex medical conditions. Nurses work in collaboration with the doctors; therefore, they must have the required skills to support doctors.

Other factors that contribute to medical errors include nurse fatigue, where the nurse's work for long hours, which makes it had to concentrate while attending to patients (Latimer et al., 2017). Lack of proper information flow also causes medical errors where doctors do not provide clear guidance to the nurses on how they should monitor the patients. Collaboration is necessary; hence poor communication leads to medical errors. Nurses also work in environments that might not be conducive to provide medical services, which exposes the patients and nurses to the risks of contracting other diseases instead of patients getting treatment and going home.

Challenges

There are challenges experienced in dealing with medical errors that make it harder for healthcare stakeholders to deal with the factors that contribute to medical errors. The challenges include a lack of enough resources to deal with the risks that contribute to medical errors (Trakulsunti et al., 2020). Finance resources are required to hire enough personnel and improve the working environment in health facilities. The nurses need to be supported by the government and the community to ensure they have the resources they require in eliminating medical errors and improving patient safety.

Education and training are the best and effective ways of dealing with medical errors by equipping nurses with the skills in areas where medical errors mostly occur. Most of the medical errors which include wrong diagnosis and wrong treatment options. The errors occur because nurses lack the expertise to deal with medical errors (Trakulsunti et al., 2020). The training will involve identifying the areas that have more medical areas and training the nurses on how they can eliminate medical errors. Nurses need to be encouraged to embrace modern technologies that enhance medical safety and improve the efficiency of nursing activities. The training will also enable nurses to deal with challenges when handling medications that they are not experienced in.

Another way to reduce medical error challenge includes promoting interdisciplinary collaboration to allow the nurses and other medical professionals to interact effectively and share the knowledge that reduces medical errors. The collaboration will facilitate the sharing of knowledge and experiences and, in turn, will make the nurses reduce the number of medical errors that they make (Latimer et al., 2017). Nurses are not experts in all areas; therefore, they require guidance from experts in other fields where they do not have expertise in. The collaboration also enables other stakeholders to guide the nurses on how they are supposed to take care of the patients. Modern technology is facilitating the collaboration between different stakeholders in healthcare when consultations and necessary. Some healthcare facilities do not have all the specialists; hence consultation is required. Nurses need to inspire confidence among the patients to give them hope of healing.

The Role of the Nurses

The role of the nurses is to take care of patients while they are in health facilities and assisting doctors and other healthcare workers. The concept of caring requires nurses to reduce medical errors that affect the healing process of the patients (Trakulsunti et al., 2020). The success of nursing services will be measured by the number of patients who get treated and heal from the diseases that they suffer from—the less the number of medical errors, the high the number of recoveries.

Watson's theory of human caring helps the nurse to practice the art of caring while at the same time providing compassion that is essential in easing the suffering to the patient and the families as well as boosting their dignity and healing (Sitzman & Watson, 2018). The theory is also significant as it boosts the nurse's self-actualization. Humans cannot be treated as objects, and they cannot be separated from themselves or their environment. Patient identified needs is one of the concepts of Watson’s theory that is critical in improving the nursing outcomes.

The health outcomes depend on the real needs of the patients hence the reason why it is critical to assess the needs of individual patients. Inappropriate assessment of a patient's needs, for example, leads to medical errors (Sitzman & Watson, 2018). To reduce medical errors, a patient-centred communication model should be embraced. The health professional should, however, begin with establishing what the patient needs are and making recommendations that are specific to his/her case. They should also have a complete medical record of the patient, and if he/she is conscious, they should inquire more from her to enable them to make a correct diagnosis. Additionally, they should communicate with the patient so that they can identify the treatment method that they feel is the best rather than deciding for them. Nurse patient engagement promotes the health outcome as compared to when the health profession decides on what they think is the best approach for the patient without involving him/her or a family member.

Throughout the treatment and recovery process, patients should be continuously provided with information using different modes of communication. Patients should be encouraged to engage in the process by asking questions and seeking clarification whenever there is need (Sitzman & Watson, 2018). This promotes the recovery as the patients become confident with the health providers and feel that whatever interventions implemented are geared towards their recovery.

Improving teaching-learning experience is important in improving health outcomes as it can reduce patient mortality. Team training of the health professionals helps in enhancing the team-based knowledge, attitudes and problem solving (Sitzman & Watson, 2018). During the process of treatment, the health employees work as a team; thus if they are all equipped with relevant skills and knowledge regarding the healing process, there will be reduced errors. Through team training, there is enhanced coordination, cooperation and leadership, thus eliminating errors that arise as a result of lack of these vital skills.

Reducing Medical Errors

Reducing medical errors benefits not only the patients but also the health facilities. Reduced medical errors improve the health outcomes as the patients healing process is faster since there are the correct diagnosis and prescription (Latimer et al., 2017). Patients who are treated in a facility where there are no errors are confident and satisfied with the services offered. This enhances the nurse-patient relationship, which accelerates the healing since the nurse and patient can engage in a conversation regarding the patient's needs and the treatment approach they prefer.

Addressing medical errors helps in reducing the hospital readmissions that occur 30 days within the discharge date (Latimer et al., 2017). Some readmissions are as a result of prescription errors which includes under-prescription, and over-prescription. Readmissions can be reduced through front-end medication reconciliation and building patient trust. Some readmissions are caused by the failure of the patients to take the prescribed medications, for example, for fear of the side effects or the cost. It is, therefore, necessary for the health professionals to create trust with the patients and provide all relevant information before discharge. The patients and their family members should also be allowed to ask questions or seek clarifications.

After administering teaching to the staff, the effectiveness of the process will be measured through frequent assessment and feedback. The feedback is essential in establishing whether the learning approaches are effective and what needs to be improved to improve the health outcome (Pérez et al., 2019). After the learning experience, health professionals will help in reducing the number of medical errors in the facility. The effectiveness of the learning experience can, therefore, be measured by assessing the number of cases of medical errors. This, however, can only be achieved through collaboration between the staff and the team leaders.

Surveillance is important in measuring medication safety and can be applied after the teaching-learning experience to assess the improvements that the staff is making (Pérez et al., 2019). Automated surveillance helps in improving medication management and patient safety. By monitoring what the employees are doing in reducing medical errors, the management can decide on the areas that require improvement and the interventions that can be applied.

During the assessment process, the leader evaluates whether the nurses are practising love, kindness and compassion, which are essential in the profession (Pérez et al., 2019). Their spiritual practices and self-awareness should also be assessed as well as their ability to develop and sustain a caring relationship. They should also be examined on problem-solving and creating an environment that enhances the healing process. If the nurses are equipped with all these skills, then there will be reduced medical errors, and the patients will trust the nurses.

Conclusion

In conclusion, medical errors in healthcare need to be reduced by embracing strategies such as nursing education to improve knowledge and skills of the nurses. Medical errors are a major challenge that affects the success of patient healing. Medical errors are a major challenge affecting healthcare, where patients end up getting injuries instead of getting treatment. Changes need to be made in terms of how nurses do their work to improve the safety of the patients.

References

Latimer, S., Hewitt, J., Stanbrough, R., & McAndrew, R. (2017). Reducing medication errors: Teaching strategies that increase nursing students' awareness of medication errors and their prevention.

Pérez, C. D., Fuentes, P. S., & García, E. J. (2019). Addressing medical errors: an intervention protocol for nursing professionals. Revista da Escola de Enfermagem da USP, 53.

Sitzman, K., & Watson, J. (2018). Caring science, mindful practice: Implementing Watson’s human caring theory. Springer Publishing Company.