Nursing Quality Improvement Project.

Create an outline of the action plan for the Quality Improvement Project.

Content Requirements:

Identify stakeholders that will be impacted by the quality improvement project.

Identify and discussed resources including budget needed to implement the quality improvement project.
Develop an action plan for change including a proposed implementation timeline

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1 SWOT Analysis Students Name Institution Affiliation Course Professor Due Date 2 Abstract Quality improvement in healthcare occurs in numerous ways, but the most important is usually via the adoption of recent technology and guided protocols in healthcare. Medication errors typically result in adverse events that impact an individual’s health; in most cases, they occur due to dispensation errors or during prescription. The main aim of this project is to conduct a SWOT analysis of the project stating the strategies that should be included and be readjusted. The first bit of the task described a SWOT analysis, while the body emphasized the SWOT analysis part. Towards the end, a conclusion of the discussion is provided. 3 SWOT Analysis Introduction Medication errors in healthcare usually result from the combined efforts of physicians, nurses, pharmacists, and patients. Medication errors are a common and severe predisposing factor to the patient safety globally. According to the Food and Drug Act (FDA), it has a key role in ensuring that the drug names are well-reviewed, labeled, packaged, and designed for easy identification by the various healthcare personnel. Additionally, the Food and Drug Act, collaborates with the external stakeholders and regulators to understand the causes of the various medical errors and the key interventions needed to overcome them. The prevalence of medication errors is thought to be higher in African countries than in developed countries. A SWOT analysis is a strategic planning and management technique that will enable the various individuals to identify the project’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats in place. This task aims at conducting a SWOT analysis of the Medication error project. Strengths Strengths in a SWOT analysis usually describe what an organization or a project is capable of attaining. This is usually made possible with the availability of various resources and also some competitive advantages, unlike others. Some of the strengths of this project include, one there is the training of the healthcare personnel on how the medication errors can be prevented. This usually entails the attendance of various Continuous Medical Education that provides them with the skills of ensuring correct drug dispensation protocol is followed. Another strength of the project is the use of automated electronics to enter the patient’s details and also the drug dose to avoid confusion when dispensing the drugs. The ability of the stakeholders to collaborate with other stakeholders, for example, the Food and Drug Act (FDA), has made the project succeed in 4 numerous ways. The availability of the FDA has ensured that the correct drugs are dispensed to the right individuals, and also protocols are adhered to (Food and Drug Administration,2019). Weakness Weakness usually consists of the negative factors that detract an organization from achieving its goals. They usually consist of activities that an organization needs to put more emphasis on to remain competitive. One of the known weaknesses of the project is the lack of regular assessment of the nurses. This is likely to result in redundancy of behavior that was in place. Regular assessment and evaluation of the facility and the healthcare personnel ensure that each person is working towards the attainment of a common goal. Additionally, the inaccessibility of protocols to be followed during the drug dispensation has led to increased medication errors in the organization. If barcode medication administration had been implemented, many miscellaneous errors could have been avoided (Berry,2018). The lack of accessible computers and scanners resulted in the increased persistence of the medication errors as the use of new technology was not adopted by then. Opportunity Opportunities usually result in the flourishing of an organization as the majority of the external factors are favorable for the organization. They usually arise from the situations that occur in the outside world; based on this project; the major opportunities include favorable legislation policies, availability of funding sources, and the incorporation of the emerging technology. According to Vlados (2019), systems that use information technology, for example, computerized entry of patient information and automated dispensing, are more likely to reduce the occurrence of errors. Incorporating this kind of technology will empower the healthcare personnel as they must first be taught how it operates. To create and sustain high-quality patient care, there is a need 5 to formulate various health-related policies. This will ensure that each patient receives the medications based on the protocols and within the prescribed period. Threats In an organization, threats are usually identified by calculating the impact of the likelihood of occurrence. Occasionally, the organization has to assess what its competitors are engaging in and then determine the various measures they will put into place to ensure that they overcome them. Some of the threats of this project include a lack of key staff, increased competition, and adverse drug reimbursement changes. If the other facility or hospital has adopted the current technology in the drug reimbursement, there will be a high likelihood that they would encounter minimal errors during drug administration; this would mean that the patients will shift to it. Additionally, a lack of qualified personnel, for example, the pharmacists, would result in the decreased dispensation of the drugs. This is simply because there is a reduced certainty of the correct medications that need to be administered, resulting in dilemma and reduced utilization of the available services. Conclusion A good quality improvement project in healthcare should always have a balance between the strongholds and its weak points. For the elderly persons, expansion of insurance covers, development of new medications for their many diseases, and the adoption of the latest technology will result in the minimization of medication errors during care provision. With the advancement in technology, most healthcare organizations will be in a better position to attain their goal with minimal effort (Tariq et al.,2020). They would first need to be trained on operating them, then employ whatever they have been taught into practice. It is also good to involve the patient in the entire decision-making process regarding the medication process as they are the primary 6 consumers of the available healthcare services.

The fragility in their health systems calls for watchfulness during the care provision simply because, inflicting harm to the patient may result in ethical dilemmas. The interventions to be incorporated in the quality improvement project should be more patient-centered. 7 References Berry, T. (2018). What is a SWOT analysis? B Plans. Accessed October, 10. Tariq, R., Vashisht, R., Sinha, A. & Scherbak, Y. (2022). Medication dispensing errors and prevention. StatPearls Publishing, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK519065/ U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). (2019). Working to reduce medication errors. https://www.fda.gov/drugs/information-consumers-and-patients-drugs/working-reducemedication-errors Vlados, C. (2019). On a correlative and evolutionary SWOT analysis. Journal of Strategy and Management. 1 Medication Errors Student’s Name Institutional Affiliation Course Instructor’s Name Date 2 Medication Errors Pharmacological treatment is one of the key strategies to manage and control diseases. However, the increasing use of new medications in a population with increasingly complex medical needs comes with a growing risk of patient harm from medication errors. Nursing Quality Improvement Project

According to the National Coordinating Council for Medication Error Reporting and Prevention, a medication error is defined as ‘any preventable event that may cause or lead to inappropriate medication use or patient harm while the medication is in control of a healthcare professional, patient or consumer with such events related to professional practice, healthcare products, procedures, and systems’ (FDA, 2019). These errors occur in different phases of medication use. Mistakes may happen when prescribing a drug, during transcription, when preparing or dispensing, or when the drug is administered to or taken by a patient. Medication errors are a common and severe predisposing factor to compromised patient safety worldwide. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) receives more than 100000 reports every year of a suspected medication errors. Additionally, hundreds of thousands of other patients experience complications related to inappropriate medication use without reporting. Nursing Quality Improvement Project

The prevalence is much higher in developing countries such as African countries, in which research shows medication errors in every 13-76% of prescriptions for general patients (Yadesa et al., 2021). Since the Institute of Medicine (IOM) ‘To Err is Human: Building a Safer Health System’ report, researchers have conducted numerous studies focusing on medication safety. As Assiri et al. (2018) reveal, most studies show inappropriate prescribing as the most common type of medication error, with nurses and pharmacists contributing to administration and dispensing errors. Unfortunately, the number of medication errors and related severe consequences is likely to grow further due to the increasingly aging population with compound 3 health needs, the innovation of new uses for older medicines, the development of new medicines, and over dependence on drugs for disease prevention and treatment, and expansion of insurance coverage for prescription drugs. Besides, mistakes in medication use are highly likely to occur with the use of multiple medications, involvement of more than one physician, and the presence of comorbidities.

Rationale for the Need to Change Status Quo Medication errors are among the commonest medical errors causing increased morbidity and mortality. According to Tariq et al. (2022), approximately 9000 people die annually due to a medication error in the U.S. Those that do not die experience suffering and psychological and physical pain related to the adverse effects. In addition, managing health complications resulting from medication errors is also expensive, with more than $40 billion spent each year. Also, besides health complications and monetary costs, a significant consequence of medication errors is that they lead to decreased patient satisfaction and increasing distrust in the healthcare system. With insight into these consequences, there is a need to address the issue from a diverse perspective and change the status quo. A vital aspect of the evolving healthcare system, patient safety, cannot be reached while medication errors keep occurring. Best Practices to Reduce Medication Errors With most medication errors related to illegible writing during prescription, the problem has been resolved using provider order entry systems where prescriptions are typed instead of written down. Also, studies show that double-checking the drug name, dosing, and frequency during administration helps reduce the number of medication errors at this phase (Tariq et al., 2022). Nursing Quality Improvement Project

Also, observing the five rights of medication administration and conducting proper 4 medication reconciliation procedures at every point of care transition helps nurses and other healthcare professionals from making mistakes. Other practices include the use of barcodes, use of name alerts, separating high alert drugs, and establishing drug use guidelines. 5 References Assiri, G., Shebl, N., Mahmoud, M., Aloudah, N., Grant, E. & Sheikh, A. (2018). What is the epidemiology of medication errors, error-related adverse events, and risk factors for errors in adults managed in community care contexts? A systematic review of the international literature. BMJ Open, 8(5), https://doi.org/10.1136%2Fbmjopen-2017019101 Tariq, R., Vashisht, R., Sinha, A. & Scherbak, Y. (2022). Medication dispensing errors and prevention. StatPearls Publishing, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK519065/ U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). (2019). Working to reduce medication errors. https://www.fda.gov/drugs/information-consumers-and-patients-drugs/working-reducemedication-errors Yadesa, T., Dorothy, A. & Atukunda, E. (2021). Prevalence of medication errors and the associated factors: a prospective observational study among cancer patients at Mbarara regional referral hospital. Cancer Management and Research, 13, 3739-3748, https://doi.org/10.2147/CMAR.S307001 Nursing Quality Improvement Project