NHS FPX 4000 Assessment 2 Applying Research Skills Healthcare Issue and its Relevance

A medication error is a preventable adverse event resulting from inappropriate medication use, causing harm to the consumer. Healthcare organizations are recently facing a skyrocketing prevalence of medication errors. According to the report by the World Health Organization (WHO), around 1.3 million people are harmed by medication errors, and almost one medication-related mortality case reports in the United States.

Approximately $42 billion is estimated to be the annual impact of medication errors (Naseralallah et al., 2023). As a baccalaureate-prepared nurse, I find this topic interesting and relevant as professional nurses play a crucial role in preventing medication errors. Medication administration is the primary responsibility of nurses; hence, nurses should be well-trained and prepared to avoid such adverse events and improve the quality of nursing practices. During my orientation in clinical settings, I have seen a similar incident where nurses’ negligence led to a severe medication error by administering the wrong drug (Antibiotic) to the wrong patient, resulting in an anaphylactic reaction in the patient.

This incident ultimately increased the patient’s length of stay due to active complications of anaphylaxis. Since this topic is professionally relevant to nursing practice, this annotated bibliography presents peer-reviewed articles on medication errors. This assessment will help find evidence-based and credible information to address the healthcare issue. 

Identification of Peer-reviewed Articles 

The databases used to identify peer-reviewed articles for the annotated bibliography are CINAHL, Google Scholar, PubMed, and Science Direct. I used keywords like prevalence of medication errors, risk factors of medication errors, best practices to address medication errors, and technology to prevent medication errors. The criteria used to search for the articles is CRAAP, an acronym for currency, relevance, authority, accuracy, and purpose. CRAAP criteria help students and researchers find credible and relevant information from online sources, polishing their research skills (Esparrago-Kalidas, 2021). 

• Currency (The article should be current and up-to-date).
• Relevance (The information should link to the topic of research). 
• Authority (The authors and the publishing journal should have enough credentials). 
• Accuracy (The points presented in the article are accurate and precise to the topic). 
• Purpose (The article’s purpose must be clear and match your research’sresearch’s objective). 

Assessing Credibility and Relevance of Resources 

Based on the criteria presented earlier, I have determined the credibility and relevance of the resources. The articles in the annotated bibliography are from four journals: the Journal of Patient Safety, Drug Safety, Therapeutic Advances in Drug Safety, and the European Journal of Clinical Pharmacology. These journals publish peer-reviewed medical and healthcare articles, assisting researchers in identifying evidence-based, credible, and relevant information related to several healthcare topics. All the articles chosen are between 2019 and 2021, making them up-to-date with the information.

Since the keywords used to identify these sources are related to medication errors, the information identified from these articles is relevant to the research topic. These articles provide insights into the global presence of healthcare issues and the contributing factors, which will assist in finding organization-specific factors and challenges. Moreover, the articles present best practices and technological advancements that are helping to prevent the issue in the healthcare industry. These practices can also be instituted in our organization to improve the quality of care and preserve patient safety. 

Annotated Bibliography 

Alqenae, F. A., Steinke, D., & Keers, R. N. (2020). Prevalence and nature of medication errors and medication-related harm following discharge from hospital to community settings: A systematic review. Drug Safety, 43(6), 517–537. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40264-020-00918-3 

The purpose of this systematic review is to provide insights into the prevalence and nature of medication errors after patients are discharged from the hospitals and living in community settings. The article found that medication errors and adverse events are common following discharge, as indicated by 53% in adult patients and 66.3% in the pediatric population. The review found that the most common drugs that imply medication-related harm are antibiotics, analgesics,&nb