Role Of The Nurse In Safe Administration Of Oral Medication Nursing Essay

Role Of The Nurse In near Administration Of Oral Medication Nursing EssayAdministration of medicines to adults who ar physically ill or injured is part of the adult nurses responsibility to provide holistic cargon and promote health (Veitch Christie 2007). Medicines are manufactured in several forms and can be administered by different routes. According to the form of the medicines at that place are different requirements and equipment for their garbage disposal and storage (Burton and Donaldson 2007). This essay will focus on the administration of oral exam medicines, the standards and the legal requirements for their safe administration. The essay will in both case look at areas where problems are most potential to arise and will describe the measures which nurses can take to ensure affected roles safety when administering oral medicines.The National patient role Safety Agency (NPSA) defines patient safety as a process which involves identification, analysis and way of risks and incidents, including medication errors so potential or actual harm to patients can be prevented or minimised. Medication errors extradite a significant concern on patients, their families and health professionals involved. They can compromise patients safety and result in actual harm to patients. A total of 72,482 medication errors of which 14,111 caused harm of various extents to patients and 37 resulted in dying were reported to the NPSA (2009) in one year. The same report showed that nearly half of the incidents were concerned with administration of medicines. some other report by the Department of Health (2004) estimated the cost of medication errors in NHS hospitals between 200-400 million per year. therefrom it is vital that nurses adopt safe, methodical and skilled accession to administration of medicines.LEGALThe management of all medicines in the United Kingdom is governed by several legislations, the Standards for Medicine Management (2008) and the Standard s of conduct, performance and ethics issued by the NMC (2008). The Standards define the nurses responsibilities in relation to the current UK legislations. Burton Donaldson (2007) summarise these legislations in the latest edition of the Foundations for Nursing Practice. The Medicines Act (1968) regulates the requirements by which medicines are manufactured, prescribed and administered. The Medicines Act (1968) also classifies medicines into four categories which are Prescription single medicines (POMs), Pharmacy only medicines (Ps), General sales medicines (GSLs) and Control drugs (CDs).The Misuse of Drugs Act (1971) and the Misuse of Drugs Regulations (1985) provide the legal framework for the management of the controlled drugs and differentiate medicines according to the level of harm they may cause. The psychogenic Capacity Act (2005) provides the foundations for care manner of speaking including medicine administration to people who lack the efficiency to make informed de cisions. For Scotland these foundations are contained within The Mental Health (Care and Treatment) (Scotland) Act (2003) and The Adults with Incapacity (Scotland) Act (2000). These regulations are in place to assist and guide nurses and are fundamental in protecting patient safety. Anex1 of the Standards for Medicine Management (NMC 2008) specifies the nurses responsibility to comply with these regulations.However the administration of medication is not solely a mechanistic task to be performed and requires more than just following written instructions (NMC 2004). In respect to oral medicines and their administration the nurse should take a someone centred approach and assess and assist each patient individually according to patients general condition. Kelly and Wright (2009) draw upkeep on the high number of medication administration errors in patients with swallowing difficulties, where physiological abnormalities can lead to difficulties in swallowing of liquids or tablets. Gr iffith (2005) suggests that alternative form of medicines should be considered if patients have difficulties swallowing tablets. The nurses responsibility in this respect is to perform the initial and ongoing assessment of patients condition to establish the suitability of certain type of oral medicine and the ability of the patient to take this medicine (NMC 2008).Physical or mental health conditions could also have an impact on the medication compliance by patients leading to crushing, mixing or disguising medicines in food or drink (Kelly Wright 2009). The Department of Health (2010) and The National Prescribing Centre (2010) outline the parameters and principles for safe mixing of medicines and the nurses role in this relation. Following these principles when nurses consider mixing of medicines they should always act in line with local policies, consult a pharmacist and obtain written instructions and also obtain consent from patients.Crushing and mixing of medicines without a elaborated assessment and justification could present safety risks for patients and nurses (Paparella 2010) because of their chemical formulations. Examples of these are the enteric coated tablets, delay released formulations and products containing carcinogenic substances. Crushing or splitting of these medicines may lead to undesirable effects for example unplanned rapid absorption. Griffith (2005) points out the legal consequences of crushing tablets. If crushing of oral formulation results in harm for the patient the nurse responsible will be liable for negligence. Paparella (2010) suggests simple steps such as careful consideration whether a tablet is safe to crush and consultations with pharmacist could significantly minimise the risk for patients and nurses. It is also essential that nurses have a sufficient level of knowledge of how medicines interact with the human body in order to be able to observe if they achieve the desired therapeutic effect and to avoid any adverse reactions (NMC 2008).Covert administration of medicines represents not only safety risks to patients but also has legal and honorable aspects which nurses have to consider before making a decision for such action (Griffith 2007).Although most of the nurses do not prescribe medicines it has been found that the administration of a wrong window glass of medicine causes the largest number of deaths and skillful harm to patients, followed by the administration of wrong medicine and omitted or delayed medicine (NPSA 2009). Subsequently, administering wrong dose of medicines has been linked to poor mathematical skills (Pentin Smith 2010). The nurses responsibility in connection with administering correct doses of oral medicines is defined in the Standards for medicine administration (NMC 2008) which states the nurses must be aware of the patients care plan, check prescription and back breaker before administering medicines.Administering of a wrong oral medicine is often associated wit h similar medicine or patient names, packaging, labelling or poor storage systems (NPSA 2009). This is particularly common issue in nursing and care homes where no wrist bands for identification are used (Pountney 2010).CONCLUSIONSafe administration of medicines requires a methodical approach that follows local policies (Burton,C Donaldson,J 2007).