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Ethical Analysis - Selina Dykes
Ethical Analysis - Selina Dykes
Ethical Analysis - Selina Dykes
Ethical Analysis
Selina Dykes
Ethical Analysis
Among the many quality indicators that are described and incorporated in the world of
nursing, medication errors have become a growing concern. A medication error results when a
nurse or physician overlook the seven rights to medication administration during the preparation
stage of passing medications. Looking into the article, “Measures to Prevent Medication Errors
in Intensive Care Units”, the authors discuss the various methods to distributing medications in a
safer manner. Concepts such as employing full time pharmacists, cultivating a positive
environment where nurses can speak up about their errors as well as creating an interruption free
This article integrated ethics in the research by being sure to include evidence-based
recommendations which resulted in a fair and ethical study. Although the authors did not
complete their research on actual patients individually, they trialed intensive care units at several
hospitals. Additionally, they searched through various articles to summarize the top points for
demonstrates the effectiveness of avoiding giving medications that the patient does not
necessarily need. Transcribing signifies the errors that are produced from handwritten orders that
are illegible. Dispensing explains that pharmacists should review all the drugs before distributing
and using certain fonts when writing drug names to make a distinct difference in names that look
similar. Finally, administration follows the five rights to medication. Nurses trialed different
methods such as wearing a yellow sash to symbolize to other health care professionals that they
were to not be disturbed (Plutínská & Plevová, 2019). With this, it was discussed that articles
chosen followed a certain criterion that made them considerable. This promotes a baseline
standard and allowed for the authors to write an article about topics that were relevant and
ETHICAL ANALYSIS 3
proven to be seen in clinical settings. Some of the criterion included being published from 2008-
administration. Databases such as EBSCO were included to uncover these articles giving the
study validity and specifications. Moreover, these methods successfully prevented research
misconduct because the articles and papers used were reliable and peer reviewed pieces instead
Within this study the subjects’ rights were protected because the authors were sure to
include 189 different ICUs and 11 of which were further analyzed. Because of this, the study was
ethical because it displays the equality of information from each unit rather than holding one
hospitals ICU reputation over others. This protects the patients’ rights among these units because
by utilizing evidence-based practice, they were able to trial the four categories as mentioned
before to analyze if improving these specific concepts bettered the patient’s outcome.
Furthermore, the patients were able to exercise their autonomy of making decisions for
themselves as well as having the right to refuse these treatments and being a part of the trials
without any restrictions or compromise of care. Additionally, the authors protected the subjects’
rights by not mentioning names of the patients in the ICUs which shows that HIPAA was not
violated. By pulling articles from a reliable database like EBSCO, there was some form of
This study shows to be ethically sound because the authors maintained a professional
level of confidentiality by protecting the patients’ identity. In addition to this, they used reliable
sources to pinpoint certain concepts that can be improved in order to provide better care and less
medication administration errors. Additionally, only the names of hospitals ICUs were
mentioned rather than the individual patient themselves who have previously had a mishap with
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this quality indicator. Overall, quality indicators are ideas that enhance the care given to
patients. As a nurse, it is a priority to continuously try and improve these methods in order to
Resources
Plutínská, Z., Plevová, I. (2019). Measures to prevent medication errors in intensive care units.
org.lopes.idm.oclc.org/10.15452/CEJNM.2019.10.0014