Safe Medication Administration Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Safe Medication Administration - Essay Example My practicum project is about Safe Medication Administration. As a nurse educator, I have the strong will to bring a change in pharmacological field, which I believe has started to become a global problem. I believe that for there to be a change it must start at an individual level. Therefore, my engagement in this field is to bring a significant change towards achieving safe medication administration by starting at the primary level, and that is nursing students. This improvement will positively affect my practicum site, Butler Tech, and will further improve the situation for other organizations where the nurses I will be teaching will be posted. For this project, I will be involved in teaching nursing students how to pass medication effectively and how to ensure a safe medication administration and use. I will actively use modern technology such as simulation medication carts in the lab sessions to teach students how to pass medication effectively. The set-up of the teaching enviro nment that I will be working in will involve the use of medication carts, which I will label, a medication record that will consist of counterfeit medicine, and some simulation dummies. Goal statement: As a nurse educator, my practicum experience goal is to contribute positively to the nursing field by using core competencies I have gained during my nurse educator program in helping nursing students understand the importance of safety in drug administration. At the end of the Practicum Experience, I will be able to.... Literature review Over time, there have been concerns in the nursing field on the various incidents of unsafe medicine administration. A study by Hughes and Blegen (2007) indicated that errors related to administration of medicine are becoming a principal concern among the causes of mortality and morbidity. In 2007, alone the death rate stood at 7,000. This concern led to the Institute of Medicine to come up with a report dubbed â€Å"Preventing Medication Errors† (Hughes & Blegen, 2007). The report emphasized on the need to practice safe medication administration. Years later, the problem still exists, and there although many measures have been put in place, there are still cases of unsafe drug administration in chemist, hospitals, and pharmacies (The National Patient Safety Agency, 2010). It is for this reason that I have gained a lot of interest in the field of pharmacology. The process of medicine administration is continuously becoming complex because of the continuous pr oduction and discovery of new drugs in the market. The number of prescribed medicine per patients is also playing a significant role in this trend (Garrett & Craig, 2008). Another important factor that is playing a key role in the medication field is the rapid change in medical technology and the several procedures and policies that have come up (National Patient Safety Agency, 2009a). Over the years, as I have progressed with my career I have come to discover that pharmacology, either as a course or part of a course for a nursing education is a particularly valuable element for any health care practitioner (Chester, 1977). A safe medication process and use are two essential principles that contribute