Medication Errors

[haps]

I am doing a research paper on medication errors. Curious as to what nurses think about this subject. What do you think are the most common medication errors and what are the most common reasons for errors? What can be done to better prevent such errors? Thanks for your input.

Haps

[DelGR]

We now have a bar code system in the VA to safely administer meds to the patients. It isn't perfect and med errors can still happen but I like it much better than the paper system and illegible writing of docs.

We had 6 errors last year due to look alike, sound alike and spelled nearly alike drugs. That was a trend we noted.

Early/late is considered an error. We are improving on that due to becoming more familiar with this new way to administer meds to patients. Most nurses won't let themselves get interrupted while passing meds.

[guesswho]

We have a doc who either won't or can't read previous orders. Recently a patient got an extra dose of a med because he ordered a med that was already ordered. Granted, he wasn't the only cause of this error , but he sure didn't help matters, either.