Strategies Guiding Decision Making
Various strategies guide disclosure or nondisclosure of a patient’s medication error to the patient. One of the strategies is to consider whether harmful effects result from the prescribed medications or not. If there are adverse effects, it is important to inform the patient and assure them of quality care to rectify the error. This would avoid litigations and negative publicity by the patients or their families concerning the impactful error. Harmful errors attract legal suits and thus should be disclosed. “Nonharmful” errors are less recognized, and thus, healthcare providers are not inclined to disclose the errors (Chamberlain et al., 2016). The other strategy is considering the laws of the state. In some states, medication errors should be reported and disclosed once realized. This includes both harmful and “harmless” errors. As an advanced nurse practitioner, I would disclose to the patient when there are harmful results of the errors in avoiding confusing the patient. Changing the prescription would be the most effective strategy when the prescription is harmless. This would avoid unnecessary tension for the patient and their families.
Writing Prescriptions
Writing prescriptions involves the process of documenting the prescriptions for the patients. Writing prescriptions is procedural, including various steps. The prescriber should first evaluate the patient and define their problems through clinical assessment of the patient’s history. The prescriber should then select the appropriate drug therapy and initiate the appropriate details, considering the non-pharmacologic therapies. The next step is to give information about the therapy, instructions, and probably warnings on using the medications. After providing instructions and warnings, the prescriber should ensure close monitoring in considering the continuation or discontinuation of the drug. Different strategies can be used to reduce medication errors. Patient education plays a very important role in improving medication adherence and reducing errors resulting from poor following of the instructions (Lee et al., 2017). Other effective methods include using prescription checklists, improved coordinated care among health providers, and effective information technology systems.
References
Chamberlain, C. J., Koniaris, L. G., Wu, A. W., & Pawlik, T. M. (2016). Disclosure of “nonharmful” medical errors and other events: duty to disclose. Archives of Surgery, 147(3), 282-286. https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamasurgery/fullarticle/1107400
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