Healthcare institutions need to develop measures for improving the medicines use safety
- Problem description
- Negative consequences
- Nowadays situation
- Raising awareness
- Solutions
Note: Safe medicines use is the basis of healthcare, and ignoring safety rules leads to the decrease of treatment efficiency. Nowadays, many medical institutions face the problem of negligence or intentional medical safety rules violation, so it is important to raise awareness about the issue and suggest possible solutions.
Reasons 1 and 2: insufficient labeling and inadequate care of special cases
- Fake/expired medications
- Examples of fake/expired medications use
- Labeling
- Blood disorders
- Special attention needed
Note: Recently, the use of fake/expired medications led to health deterioration and even death proving that medicines labeling is necessary (Torrie, Cumin, Sheridan, & Merry, 2016). There is also insufficient attention paid to patients with specific diseases, such as vein thrombosis. However, blood diseases are considered a “serious public health problem” (Teichroew, 2016, p. 138) and require special attention.
Reason 3: Insufficient treatment monitoring and education
- Treatment monitoring
- Medical control
- Medical personnel education
- The nurses’ responsibility
- Patients’ education
Note: Proper treatment monitoring medical education of patients is often ignored, though it has always been considered nurses’ responsibility (Bastable, 2017). It is vital to educate patients about their treatment and study their previous medicines.
People involved and their role in the issue
- Local authorities
- Healthcare institutions management
- Medical personnel
- Patients
- Patient’s families
Note: Local authorities and the management of healthcare institutions are the first to evaluate the current situation concerning safe medicines use. The issue is also related to patients and their families, as should understand how to take medicines safely. The medical personnel should educate patients about labeling, appropriate dozes and other safety aspects.
Possible solutions to the problem
- Development of the labeling system
- Proper review
- Prioritizing medical cases
- Education of patients
- Proper monitoring of treatment
Notes: It is important to create a clear labeling system and conduct proper labeling review. Blood disorders should be priority cases; medical personnel should monitor patients’ medicines use and educate them carefully.
The purpose, cost and desired outcome of the solutions
- Integrated improvement of safe medicines use
- Expenses evaluation
- Possible resources
- Examples of development campaigns
- Desired improvements
Notes: The development measures should be integrated, which may include the expenses for labelling methods, personnel tutorials and replacing fake/expired medicines.
The primary solution is personnel education, as it would raise their awareness of other minor issues.
Primary solution
- Treatment control
- The role of treatment control
- Regulation of the medicine amount
- Comparing current and taken medicines
- Personnel education
Notes: It is important to provide proper and timely treatment control, regulate the dozes and quality of drugs and compare current and previous treatment. Medical personnel education positively influences treatment effectiveness, and therefore, proper training should be conducted (Choi, Oh, Lee, Cho, Lee, 2019).
Action plan
- Objectives
- Tasks
- Success monitoring
- Time frame
- Resources
Notes: The plan aims at personnel education about proper treatment and medicine control. The tasks would include providing lectures and tutorials and conducting employees’ assessment to monitor success. The tutorials financed from the healthcare sector budget should be held within three months.
Summarizing issue
- Rationales of the existing problem
- Insufficient medicines safety
- Primary solutions
- Action plan
- Desired outcomes
Notes: Medical errors connected with medicines labelling, patients’ consultation and special patients care lead to the problem of insufficient medicines safety. The solutions include accurate medicines control with raising awareness of the problem as the primary solution. The actions aimed at patients’ and employees’ education would allow to improve the medical safety situation in the healthcare sector.
Assignment analysis
- Assignment aim
- The form of the assignment
- Arrangement of the information
- Understanding of the problem
- Emphasis on important aspects
Notes: The present assignment is aimed at creating a Leadership Action Plan in the form of headlines and bullet points. The plan form of the task allowed to arrange the information about the issue in an understandable way. Therefore, the issue of safe medicines use is represented in an organized way, and all the important aspects of the problem are emphasized.
References
Bastable, S.B. (Ed.). (2017). Essentials of Patient Education: Edition 2. Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Publishers.
Choi, J., Oh, J., Lee, J., Cho, W.H., & Lee, J.M. (2019). A study on the effects of medical personnel education for increasing organ donation [Abstract]. Transplantation, 103(11S), 115.
Teichroew, J.K. (Ed.). (2016). Chronic Diseases: An Encyclopedia of Causes, Effects, and Treatments (Vols. 1-2). Santa Barbara, CA: Greenwood.
Torrie, J., Cumin, D., Sheridan, J., & Merry, A. F. (2016). Fake and expired medications in simulation-based education: an underappreciated risk to patient safety. BMJ Quality & Safety, 25(12), 917–920.