• Discussion # 1
• For my clinical practice, I choose Goal One of the 2021 National Patient Safety Goals. Goal one is to improve the accuracy of patient identification. To implement this goal, it is recommended to use at least two patient identifiers when providing care, treatment, and services. The rationale behind this goal is it will help prevent medication errors, and by having two identifiers there is less chances of the wrong person receiving the wrong services or the wrong person being incorrectly medicated. Although, I do not work in a hospital setting, I do believe this goal of patient safety will be beneficial in my work environment. Medication administration errors are among the most vexing and costly events in healthcare (Berndt & Steinheiser, 2021).

My clients are for the most part are repeated clients. However, we receive new clients on every day. There are plenty of time when two or more individuals have the same first last name. Being that most of my clients are nonverbal, the nursing staff cannot always rely on the client being able to provide their name to us. We have what is known as client info sheets. This document essentially has all the client information such as independence level with ADLs, allergies, and dietary restrictions. Previously, it did not contain a picture of the child on it. Therefore, the nurses had to rely on the staff to correctly identify a client the nurse had never saw before. Human error is common and natural. Having the staff being the ones to identify a new client to a staff before medicating them resulted in errors sometimes. The staff would be distracted tending to another client and mistakenly identify a client to a nurse or the nurse will mishear what the staff said. I did not feel comfortable in how we were identifying new patients before medicating them. Therefore, I suggested putting the client picture on their child info sheets to avoid possible errors from occurring.

There were multiple challenges with implementing my suggestion. The main one being the clinical team being stuck in their old ways of doing things. Another challenge was getting permission from the parents to have their child picture taken. Lastly, designating a particular staff or multiple people to get the task completed. If an error occurred because the nurses weren’t correctly identifying the clients, I didn’t feel comfortable in my written explanation of the reason it occurred and how it could have been prevented. Nurses responsibility for patient safety must be supported by comprehensive documentation practices (Bail, 2020).

Unfortunately, it took a few medication errors to occur before my suggestion was implemented into our facility. There was reduction in medication errors. New direct care staff also like the new procedure of how we identified clients. It took some pressure off of them and they didn’t feel so much responsibility in memorizing every child. The director of the agency also extended the idea to the electronic medication administration records (E-MAR), and added the client photo onto every E-MAR. I now feel comfortable in the method we identify our clients before medicating them.

Discussion #2

The goals of patient safety have remained unchanged for a long time. The onset of Covid-19 infections increased the vulnerability of healthcare workers and patients within the healthcare system. The health workforce shortage leads to staff being overworked and exhausted, thus increasing the chances of mistakes. As a result, there was the need to introduce safety measures that would help reduce risk and avoid dangerous incidents in the healthcare system. The World Health Organization developed a plan to ensure healthcare facilities worldwide provide equitable and safe care. Additionally, the Joint Commission released seven main National Patient Safety Goals to solve patient safety-related issues. The third national patient safety goal involves using medicines safely. The goal ensures patients use medications safely and efficiently to avoid resistance. Various opportunities and challenges surround the patient safety goal of using medications safely.

Goal number three of using medicines safely will reduce drug administration errors. This goal requires all medicines or solutions to be put in labelled containers for easy identification. Any medication that is not labelled is not considered to be used by patients. In most cases, medication errors occur due to lack of proper management of medications (The Joint Commission, 2021). When drugs are labelled and put in safe containers, it will be easy for pharmacists or other healthcare providers administering drugs to identify the drug. As a result, there will be reduced number of errors that result from use of non-recognized medication.

The use of medicine safely has introduced medication reconciliation. Most patients that present their health needs in healthcare facilities may be administered with different types of medicines. The management of these medications may be an issue because they might contraindicate and cause safety issues. The national patient safety goal of using medication safely urges healthcare providers prescribing drugs to consider medicines before prescribing them to patients. The directive will reduce adverse side effects of medicines due to a lack of medication reconciliation (The Joint Commission, 2021). The goal of medication safety will ensure that patients do not use medication that bring adverse side effects that affect their health even further.

The goal of using the medicine safely requires healthcare providers to maintain and communicate accurate patient medication information. Discrepancies in patient medication information results in adverse patient outcomes. Healthcare providers should give accurate information about the drug while prescribing it and give proper directions of use (World Health Organization, 2021). The goal will eliminate adverse outcomes from a lack of proper communication regarding patient medication information.

Drug shortages is a challenge to meet the patient safety goal of using medications safely. Most healthcare facilities face the challenge of drug shortages. In some cases, these facilities are forced to substitute expensive medications and increase the risk of medication error (The Joint Commission, 2021). When the drugs are in limited supply, it is difficult for healthcare facilities to promote medication safety because they may be sourcing from different suppliers that may not guarantee safety.

The high cost of medication is another challenge to achieving the national patient safety goal of using medicines safely. Due to the shortage of drugs in healthcare facilities, medication may go at a higher cost than normal. Many patients will struggle to raise the money required to purchase medicines. As a result, they may purchase the drugs from stores that do not adhere to the guidelines to safeguard the safety of the medication (World Health Organization, 2021). The high cost of medication may affect the implementation of patient safety goals of using drugs safely.

National patient safety goal of using medicines safely is important in upholding patients’ safety because it will ensure drugs are prescribed and administered appropriately. The goal will eliminate medication errors that result from a lack of labelling of medicine or inaccurate patient medication information. However, shortage of drugs and high cost of medicines will be a challenge in achieving the use of medicine safely patient safety goal.