Cultural Change

Machen, S., Jani, Y., Turner, S., Marshall, M., &Fulop, N. (2019). The role of organizational and professional cultures in medication safety: A scoping review of the literature. International Journal for Quality in Health Care : Journal of the International Society for Quality in Health Care, 31. https://doi.org/10.1093/intqhc/mzz111

The above article is a scoping literature review that aimed at identifying the role of professional and organizational culture in medication safety. The article is crucial in that it shows the impact of professional and organizational culture on medication errors, including medication administration errors. It is seen from the article that employee values, beliefs, and practices influence medication safety. In nursing, the concept of culture relates to its effect on indicators such as patient safety, staff turnover, patient and provider satisfaction, and ability for health organizations to embrace change. The article shows that the creation of patient safety culture increases professional awareness, moral and ethical behaviors, and use of best practices in medications management. However, health organizations should be dedicated to support the implementation of strategies that supports a culture of patient safety.

Nurses can use the article in their practice to address medications administration errors, by advocating for a change in the existing systems and processes to enable a culture of patient safety. Nurses can also use it to inform their professional behaviors in medications management. For example, the article recommends nurses to embrace behaviors such as advocating for openness in medication error reporting, developing and complying with protocols, and engaging in systems evaluation to enhance safety and quality in medications management.

Jang, S.-J., Lee, H., & Son, Y.-J.(2021). Perceptions of Patient Safety Culture and Medication Error Reporting among Early- and Mid-Career Female Nurses in South Korea.International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18(9), 4853. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18094853

This article is a research that explored the perceptions of medication error reporting and patient safety culture and mid-career female nurses in South Korea. The article shows the role that the individual perception of safety culture influences the adoption of practices that enhance safety in medications use. The results from the article reveal that nurses’ perception of medication error reporting and patient safety culture depends largely on their career level. For example, there were low level of perception related to patient safety culture among new nurses as compared to more experienced nurses. In addition, factors such as clinical experience affect medication error report among nurses. The article raises the need for health organizations to allocate their resources for interventions that aim at transforming the perception of the nurses towards medication error reporting and patient safety culture. It also requires them to embrace a medication error reporting culture characterized by openness and non-intimidation of the reported medication errors.

Nurses and nursing students can use this article when implementing interventions to promote medication safety. One way is by exploring effective strategies to promote positive perception among nurses on issues related to medication safety. Examples include mentorship and supervision for nurses to promote adherence to the established guidelines to minimize errors in the medication processes. Secondly, nurses can use the article to transform the hospital-contextual factors that hinder patient safety culture and medication error reporting such as fear of unknown consequences and unsupportive leadership and management.

Afaya, A., Konlan, K. D., & Kim Do, H. (2021). Improving patient safety through identifying barriers to reporting medication administration errors among nurses: An integrative review.BMC Health Services Research, 21(1), 1156. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-021-07187-5

The above article is an integrative review that focused on improving patient safety through the identification of barriers to reporting medication administration errors in nursing. The article champions the need for a paradigm shift in the organizational culture to support reporting of medication administration errors in nursing. The authors noted that nurses often fail to report medication administration errors in their practice because of fear of intimidation, losing their jobs, and lawsuits among others. In addition, the authors classify the barriers to medication administration error reporting to include organizational barriers, professional and individual barriers. The organizational barriers include management behavior, confusion in the definition of medication administration error, and inadequate reporting systems. These barriers hinder the creation of a safety culture in an organization, hence, increased risk of safety issues in medication administration.

Nurses and nursing students can use this article to address the issue of medication administration errors in their practice. First, they can use it to challenge the existing organizational, individual, and professional barriers to reporting of medication administration errors by advocating for strategies such as training nurses to increase their knowledge and skills on medications management and advocating for the elimination of inefficient systems and processes. Secondly, nurses and nursing students can use the article to standardize organizational systems and processes that relate to medications management. For example, nurses, managers, leaders, and policymakers can use the recommendations from the article to develop standardized definitions of medication errors and processes that should be followed in medications management, thereby creating a culture of patient safety through the elimination of barriers to medication administration error reporting.