Medication errors involving healthcare students
- Collection:
- Health Policy and Services Research
- Series Title(s):
- Pennsylvania patient safety advisory
- Author(s):
- Hess, Liz, author Gaunt, Michael J., author Grissinger, Matthew, author
- Contributor(s):
- Pennsylvania. Patient Safety Authority, issuing body. ECRI (Organization), issuing body. Institute for Safe Medication Practices, issuing body.
- Publication:
- [Harrisburg, Pennsylvania] : Pennsylvania Patient Safety Authority, March 2016
- Language(s):
- English
- Format:
- Text
- Subject(s):
- Medication Errors -- prevention & control Medication Errors -- statistics & numerical data Students, Health Occupations Humans Pennsylvania United States
- Genre(s):
- Technical Report
- Abstract:
- Students acquire vital clinical experience while participating in patient care, but they can become involved in medication errors. The extent of this problem is relatively unexplored. Analysts reviewed medication-error events mentioning students submitted to the Pennsylvania Patient Safety Authority from July 2010 through June 2015. Of the 711 events identified, 87.3% (n = 621) reached the patient. Analysts also found that students caught or discovered the error in 16.2% (n = 115) of reports. The most common node of origin for the medication error was administration (75.9%, n = 540). The most common event types were extra dose (16.6%, n = 118), dose omission (13.2%, n = 94), and wrong time (11.4%, n = 81). High-alert medications, including insulin, opioids, and anticoagulants, were reported in 40.9% (n = 291) of events. Professional organizations, healthcare facilities, and professional schools can help reduce the risk of student-involved errors by implementing key strategies, including incorporation of didactic and experiential medication safety content into school curricula and on-site training programs.
- Copyright:
- Reproduced with permission of the copyright holder. Further use of the material is subject to CC BY-NC-ND license. (More information)
- Extent:
- 1 online resource (1 PDF file (pages 18-23))
- Illustrations:
- Illustrations
- NLM Unique ID:
- 101679149 (See catalog record)
- Permanent Link:
- http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/101679149