elearn Course Catalog

Safe Medication Administration: How to Avoid Medication Errors

The New York State Nurses Association is accredited as a provider of continuing nursing education by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation.

This course has been awarded 2 contact hours.

Course Introduction

Nurses in today's increasingly complex health care environment are expected to do more with less, do it quicker, and do it safely! Medication administration is a nursing responsibility that does not begin or end with actual administration of a dose of a medication. There are many factors which must be considered each and every time a medication is given to a patient.

The responsibility for administering medications accurately and safely is an awesome one - particularly today when new medications seemingly emerge daily, the stress and pressure of caring for more patients who are acutely ill increases daily, and the fear of making a mistake is never absent. Besides the danger of harm to a patient, there is also a risk to the nurse her/him self. Is your license at risk because you administer medications? You bet it is! The majority of cases the New York State Office of Professional Discipline investigates against nurses involve medication errors. This is not an issue that is specific to New York State. Nationally, nurses are at risk for medication as well as other practice errors.

There is good news as well. Despite this high-risk challenge faced by nurses daily, tools exist that nurses can use to arm themselves against this threat. Trossman, of the American Nurses Association, (2003) reports that multiple state nurses associations have devised systems-wide interventions that have helped to reduce the frequency and harmfulness of medication errors. National organizations devoted to the management of medication errors also offer multiple recommendations.

This course presents the challenge that nurses encounter daily regarding the risk of medication errors, as well as interventions for success.

Course Objectives

At the completion of this course, the student will be able to:

Identify the most common types of medication errors.
Discuss factors that impact on safe medication administration.
Discuss the principles of safe medication administration that can prevent medication errors.
Identify strategies for use when administering medications to reduce the potential for medication errors.

To enroll in this course, please click the "Register" button below.

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