Advanced Pharmacology
Student’s Name:
Institutional Affiliation:
Advanced Pharmacology
Ethical Considerations
Several Ethical issues may arise from medicine prescription error. The nursing ethical principle of autonomy and right to self-determination accords the patients a right to make their own treatment choices according to their views, beliefs and perceived benefits (Niemann et al. 2015). Therefore, the nurse is obligated to keep patients updated on the medical progress of the treatment process which includes involves errors. They also have to help patients, make informed decisions in deciding on mitigation measures.
Additionally, the principle of beneficence and no maleficence imposes to the nurses the duty to do what is best for patients and avoid causing harm to the patient respectively. Although prescription error can be harmful to the patient in terms of loss of life and quality of life primarily due to associated long-term disabilities, the prescribing nurses should minimize damage by informing patients and management of the error so that they can decide on the most appropriate remedy earliest possible.
Prescription errors are a reflection of problematic and unethical organizational culture as well as negligent nursing which violates the QSEN ethical nursing competences of such as safety driven culture. Consequently, Nurses and organizations can be sued for medical negligence which often leads to cancelation of practice license. The lawsuits have negative impacts on organizations as well in terms of heavy financial fines, lousy reputation, and revocation of practice license. Moreover, Nurses and healthcare organizations have an ethical obligation to admit mistakes. They are required to maintain honesty and truth-telling in communication with patients and their families to establish trust. The negative impacts of non-disclosure to patients can negatively impact on the family in terms of financial burden and emotional as well as erosion of trust. Patients family entrust nurses with the health; thus when an error occurs, they expect a disclosure and a promise of measures to prevent future recurrence of the failure.
Strategies to Guide Decision Making
When a medication error occurs, the nurses reporting approach should be based on the depth of information provided by the approach about the mistake, and the ability of the method to providing information that informs a sophisticated investigation of the specific errors to understand the nature and magnitude of the problem. As an advanced practice nurse, I would verbally report to the collaborating physician as it saves time thus enabling the application of countermeasures as early as possible. It also portrays my willingness as a nurse to communicate and recognize errors, which is a crucial aspect of nursing. Secondly, I would also consider a written report and attaching it to the patient’s story as it provides detailed information to facilitate an investigation that would help prevent future recurrence. It also enables other subsequent shift nurses to know about the medical history of the specific patient.
References
Niemann, D., Bertsche, A., Meyrath, D., Koepf, E. D., Traiser, C., Seebald, K., … & Bertsche, T.
(2015). A prospective three‐step intervention study to prevent medication errors in drug handling in paediatric care. Journal of clinical nursing, 24(1-2), 101-114.
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