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Annotated Bibliography

Student’s Name

Academic Department, Institution Name

Course

Instructor

Date
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Applying library research skills

Within almost all aspects of the nursing profession, evidence-based practice is required.

Therefore, a nurse must be proficient in research skills, looking for the most recent relevant

materials to facilitate better patient care (Riaz et al., 2017). Library research skills are, therefore,

instrumental for a nurse. The skills are applied in aspects like researching proper patient

medication and administration parameters like dosage and intervals. Focusing medication errors

are to occur as a result of an administration error; this may develop into an adverse effect for the

patient. I am particularly drawn to medication errors as they reduce patient confidence in the

healthcare system. Additionally, as a registered nurse with experience in medication errors,

having made one myself, where I compromised patient care by confusing IV drips in turn giving

the wrong IV drip to my patient. The patient suffered mild complications which included

migraines and muscle cramp as I was able to corrct the mistake before any severe consequences

manifested. I believe medication errors are a significant healthcare problem. No matter how

many safeguards are included t curb medication errors, it is usually not enough as long as

Physicians and nurses are not properly sensitized to reduce medication errors.

Identifying peer-reviewed articles

In my article search for scholarly peer-reviewed articles, I used Google scholar, the

national library of medicine (NLM), and the Capella University Library’s Database. I only

included articles published within the last five years for relevancy to narrow my search. I also

used keywords like medication administration, medication errors, and medication safety to

further narrow the search. I further limited my article search to include only articles published in

English.
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Annotated bibliography

Berland, A., & Bentsen, S. B. (2017). Medication errors in home care: a qualitative focus

group study. Journal of clinical nursing, 26(21-22), 3734-3741.

The article’s main objective is to analyze and examine the experienced of

registered nurses in terms of medication errors in home-based care rather than hospital-

based care. To begin with, the article focuses on home-based care where it uses a

qualitative study to determine specific causes of medication errors. Particularly the article

identified causes of medication errors in a home-based care model, including

incompetency, lack of information, and a general lack of strict supervision as in a hospital

care setting. The article further attributed the medication errors to patients, primarily

senior citizens. The article concluded that medication errors occur much more frequently

in home-based care than in hospital care (Berland & Bentsen, 2017). The article was

incorporated to compare home-based and hospital-based care regarding medication

errors.

Riaz, M. K., Riaz, M., & Latif, A. (2017). Medication errors and strategies for their

prevention. Pakistan journal of pharmaceutical sciences, 30(3).

The primary purpose of the article was the identification of strategies and

precautionary measures that would work to increase the reliability of medication while at

the same time reducing medication errors. The article uses a Socio-Technical

Probabilistic Risk Assessment approach to correctly analyze medical errors from the past.

The article further developed the primary steps to reduce medication errors among

patients. The steps were primarily for fluid medication and intravenous injections. In
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conclusion, the article concluded that using the three steps reduced the possibility of a

medication error by at least 22%;(Riaz et al., 2017) this was a significant improvement

compared to the former statistics. The article was suitable because the study helped put

medication errors into perspective, dating back two decades.

Manias, E., Kusljic, S., & Wu, A. (2020). A systematic review of interventions to reduce

medication errors in adult medical and surgical settings. Therapeutic advances in drug

safety, 11, 2042098620968309.

The article's main objective is to develop and improve core processes when it

comes to medication to reduce medication errors. The article begins by analyzing the

complex nature of medication administration, discussing how the risks of medication

errors have become more prevalent due to the complexity. According to the article, a

medication error is more of a chain of events that may result in adverse harmful effects

on the patient (Manias et al., 2020). The article further looks at tools that can be used to

reduce medication errors recommending tools like Failure Modes and Effects Analysis

(FMEA) for the potential identification of medication errors during the administration

process. In conclusion, the article suggests using medication tools to minimize

medication errors and prevent severe consequences like death or permanent disability.

The article was incorporated due to its extensive information on medication tools.

Isaacs, A. N., Ch’ng, K., Delhiwale, N., Taylor, K., Kent, B., & Raymond, A. (2021).

Hospital medication errors: a cross-sectional study. International Journal for

Quality in Health Care, 33(1), mzaa136.

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The article's main objective was to examine medication errors, particularly within

a hospital setting carefully. To begin with, the article thoroughly described medication

errors, including how hospital staff, like nurses, are involved in medication errors. The

article further analyzed and compared different hospitals to determine environmental

factors that led to medication errors. Regarding medication errors, the article mainly

focused on physician cased errors like wrong medication, prescription, or time to take the

drugs. The article further concluded that physician reeducation and improvements in

packaging were essential in reducing medication errors (Isaacs et al., 2021). The article

was included due to its unique perspective on medication errors looking at different

hospitals and comparing data on medication errors.

Learnings from the Research

The research and review of the articles on medication errors have given me a new

perspective regarding the different types of medication errors, their causes, and potential

interventions to reduce the cases of medication errors. Previously I believed the distraction of

physicians was among the leading causes of medication errors. It was enlightening to find out

that physician distraction was inconsequential and accounted for an insignificant amount of

medication errors compared to other factors like poor skills, knowledge, and fatigue (Berland &

Bentsen, 2017). Additionally, the articles alluded that the current measures for preventing

medication errors, like the barcode system, had many loopholes that could lead to medication

errors. Finally, in terms of preventing medication error, the articles were almost unanimous in

recommending reeducation for physicians and nurses in terms of prescribing medication.

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References

Isaacs, A. N., Ch’ng, K., Delhiwale, N., Taylor, K., Kent, B., & Raymond, A. (2021).

Hospital medication errors: a cross-sectional study. International Journal for Quality

in Health Care, 33(1), mzaa136.

Manias, E., Kusljic, S., & Wu, A. (2020). A systematic review of interventions to reduce

medication errors in adult medical and surgical settings. Therapeutic advances in drug

safety, 11, 2042098620968309.

Berland, A., & Bentsen, S. B. (2017). Medication errors in home care: a qualitative focus group

study. Journal of clinical nursing, 26(21-22), 3734-3741.

Riaz, M. K., Riaz, M., & Latif, A. (2017). Medication errors and strategies for their

prevention. Pakistan journal of pharmaceutical sciences, 30(3).