OVERVIEW

Medical Errors - Marriage & Family Therapy, Social Work is organized by Homestead Schools, Inc. This course has been approved for a maximum of 2 Contact Hour.

Learning Objectives:
After completing the course, you’ll be able to:
• Identify following sources of error and describe the steps you would take to avoid them:
Abbreviation
Administration complication
Administration route mix-up
Allergic reaction
Documentation problem
Dosage error
Drug name confusion
Drug preparation problem
Equipment misuse
Infusion misuse
Insulin error
I.V. therapy mistake
Label confusion
MAR misuse
Order misunderstanding
Patient name mix-up
Patient-teaching failure
Protocol violation
Storage problem
Symbol misinterpretation
Syringe and Tubex problem
Telephone miscommunication
Transcription error
Unfamiliarity and carelessness
Verification failure
• Name “5 rights” of drug administration.
• List two cardinal rules for administering insulin.
• Explain the importance of not leaving substances at a patient’s bedside without clear instructions.
• Take appropriate action with the drug manufacturer when you see a misleading package label.
• Differentiate between the workings of volumetric and nonvolumetric infusion controllers.
• Take proper steps to avoid errors in the administration of cancer drugs.
• List the three different times when the drug label should be checked.
• Describe what a nurse should do when seeing an unclear order.
• Explain why metric is a better system to use.
• Explain the pitfalls of relying on only one health professional to interpret a drug order.
• Explain how one can avoid an error that can occur by injecting medication into the wrong catheter tube.
• Follow the proper procedure to avoid complications arising from administering inappropriate dosage of analgesics to patients recovering from anesthetics.
• Stress the importance of checking the MAR before giving a drug.
• Explain how an order that calls for two tablets should be transcribed in three separate lines.