Medical Mistakes
Medical mistakes are common in any medical field. In most situations, the patient will experience a number of huddles and challenges while seeking treatment. Mistakes might happen because of poor medical personnel, ignorance by the patient or the pharmacy. The main causes of many medical mistakes are due to human faults. To avoid more damage to a patient, medical mistakes should be minimal. The best health care entails a mistake free medication and diagnosis. In a situation where the patient succumbs to the ailment, then the disease should be beyond the pharmacists, the medical practitioners, and the medical science. On a normal situation, the disease should be thoroughly treated to avoid serious complications and faults. Despite the fact that human beings are full of mistakes, this should not be an excuse to commit the excessive medical mistakes. Usually, medical mistakes vary but that depends on the medical condition of the patient (Tim Friend, p12).
The common medical related mistakes committed by the pharmacists are; Medication errors, nosocomial infections, misdiagnosis, and surgery errors. The Nosocomial infections are infections acquired during a pharmaceutical visit. In a bid to avoid the medical mistakes, the patients play a crucial role. Some of the pharmaceutical mistakes happen due to the ignorance of the patients. Before the consumption of drug, the patient should always follow the pharmacists’ instructions and do a thorough drug inspection to avoid more complications. In some situations, patient’s education on the disease and the drug helps a lot. This will help the patient realize the medical mistakes that might have been made by the medical staff hence; he will have enough knowledge on the drugs given and the right diagnosis that will be administered to him. In some situations, it is beyond the ability of the patient to stop the nosocomial infections but the patient is always advised to do a thorough medical research regarding the pharmacy and the its staff thus, their pharmaceutical abilities, how well and how competent they are in the field (Tim Friend, p12).
Just like in the hospitals, pharmacists experience the medical mistakes. Many patients visiting pharmacies for treatment and medication are bound to experience medical errors during their treatment. The common reasons why pharmaceutical mistakes are on the rise is due to the fact that there are many unqualified pharmacists who cannot be trusted by the patients visiting the pharmacy for on some of the diagnosis he plans to carry out (Tim Friend, p12). Unnecessary pharmaceutical mistakes can lead to a number of deaths hence, mistakes reduction is necessary while administering a proper care for patients. Although some mistakes are unavoidable in the administering of the medication by the pharmacists, the patients play a vital role in avoiding the medical mistakes.
Science in action responses is seeking action after the medical errors and mistakes by either reporting or disclosing about what took place. To most patients, medical mistakes are an area of considerable concern with many people being reported to have been affected by the medical mistakes either through a relative or personally. In most situations, the actual medical mistakes reporting by the medical personnel occur in rare occasions compared to a physician’s view depending on whether to report the medical mistake or not. Research works shows that physicians have a lot of experience when dealing with patients about the medical mistakes than the actual reporting of them to the hospitals. It is a common thing for pharmacists to make minor medical mistakes and errors during their career. (Kalra,p22). In addition to this, lack of a proper understanding between the pharmaceutical facility and the patient, and how the pharmacists might report and what exactly to report shows that, there is a need for more clarity at the occurrence of a medical error. Most patients will report errors as long as; they will be in a position to receive feedback and response to their problems. Although, the patients have sued the mistake prone pharmaceutical staffs, some of the pharmacists are still biased during error reporting hence, many fears that error disclosure might put their work at risk. It is a common knowledge that a pharmacist’s previous experience during the reporting of a medical mistake in a pharmacy strengthens the reporting behaviors.
During a medical mistake, the adult patients always know about the irresistible desire to be told about mistake that has occurred hence, the disclosure desire enhances with the severity of the error. Although a pharmaceutical mistake is always viewed as an ethical obligation, disclosure of medical mistakes is not common. This is because the pharmaceutical staff are uncertain about their patient responses to the mistakes disclosure hence; they might be scared of the legal actions or the disciplinary action that might be taken upon them. The other reason why medical practitioners and the pharmacists may vacillate about the disclosure of a medical mistake is due to the fact that, patient’s preferences are different. The preferences may differ in terms of race, gender, their ethnicity background or in terms of their socioeconomic status (Sharpe, p43).
Research works that are mainly conducted mainly focuses on the involvement of preferences of the patients in terms of their racial differences during their treatment. During treatment of the patient at the pharmacy, the patient provider communication is usually less effective with the existence of the social distance thus between the patient and the pharmacists. In some cases, the minor patients seem to be less confident or in active about the pharmaceutical activities. Some patients are always unsatisfied with their communication ability with the pharmacist (Kalra,p32). Proper educational intercessions by the pharmacy will be able to assist the pharmacist’s medical errors disclosure, learning more about patient’s preferences for mistake disclosure, and patients’ responses during the disclosure of an error. The pharmacist will also have the chance to know how the patient’s preference and response alter depending on the different patient population sizes.
The Patients can take a number of response action practices, to avoid future pharmaceutical related errors and mistakes. Transforming of the frequent occurrences into key learning prospects is necessary for the patients as a first step in avoiding and minimizing future errors. Most importantly, the patients can use their experiences, to learn the invaluable lessons during open discussions on how medical related errors can be prevented in years to come. Coping strategies of future errors and medical mistakes can be emphasized during the discussions. The other response action can be the identification of a variety of various strategies in order to cope with the patients’ emotional responses towards the medical mistakes and errors. The patients can talk and share their difficult moments with others at the same time observing the best coping mechanisms for the participants (Kalra, p52). The patients can converse among themselves. This helps to lessen the feelings, which are intense which the patients experienced during their medical mishaps. They can do this by providing themselves reassurances and validations. For the distress and isolated patients, this will serve as a perfect venue to mingle and share problems experienced during medical errors. Closely talking serves as a learning opportunity to the patients. The patients get the opportunity to extensively learn from the experiences and how to cope precisely in case a future occurrence happens. Generally, the patient’s coping process represents learning opportunities and emotional finding support. The role of the patient during the disclosing of the pharmaceutical error serves as a part of coping thus with their experiences to the study. Patients’ disclosure of the events that transpired is vital in helping the decrease in a physician’s distress especially after a medical error. Generally, error disclosure by the patient serves as a psychological benefit to the pharmacists
In most cases, pharmacists affected by the medical mistakes, opt to seek guidance from fellow pharmaceutical colleagues instead of their family members and their friends (Sharpe, p43). They also tend to seek guidance and assurances from one another with the help of the supervisory pharmacists. This is because their fellow pharmacists tend to understand and properly identify their situations with ease. In order to have an effective coping program among patients and pharmacists who experienced the medical mistakes and errors, training programs are best suited in order to train the trainees on different levels (Kalra, p52).
Work cited
Tim, Friend. “Medical mistakes happen when safeguards fail”. http://www.usatoday.com/life/2003-04-01- med-error_x.htm. 2003. web.
Kalra, Jay. Medical Errors and Patient Safety. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2011. Print.
Sharpe, Virginia A. Accountability: Patient Safety and Policy Reform. Washington, D.C: Georgetown University Press, 2009. Print.
