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This paper addresses the ethics of the prosecution of nurse RaDonda Vaught for a medication error that led to the death of her patient. It is argued that the prosecution of Ms. Vaught was wrong; however, in contrast to some commentators, it is argued that the wrongness of Ms. Vaught's prosecution did not stem from its effects on patient safety, but from the fact that the charges, in this case, were legally and ethically unjustified in themselves., (© 2022 Wiley Periodicals LLC.)

Purpose: We summarize the development and initial implementation of a survey tool to assess medication safety in small rural hospitals., Summary: As part of an ongoing rural hospital medication safety improvement program, we developed a survey tool in all 13 critical access hospitals (CAHs) in Florida. The survey was compiled from existing medication safety assessments and standards, clinical practice guidelines, and published literature. Survey items were selected based on considerations regarding practicality and relevance to the CAH setting.The final survey instrument included 134 items representing 17 medication safety domains. Overall hospital scores ranged from 41% to 95%, with a median of 59%. Most hospitals showed large variation in scores across domains, with 5 hospitals having at least 1 domain with scores less than 10%. Highest scores across all facilities were seen for safety procedures concerning high-alert or look-alike medications and the assembly of emergency carts. The lowest median scores included availability and consistent use of standardized order sets and the effective implementation of medication safety committees. Most hospitals used the survey results to identify and prioritize quality improvement activities., Conclusions: The survey can be used to conduct a short medication safety assessment specific to a limited number of areas and services in CAHs. It showed good ability to discriminate medication safety levels across participating sites and highlighted opportunities for improvement. It may need modification if case mix or services differ in other states or if the status quo of medication safety in CAHs or related standards advance. The described process of survey development might be helpful to support such modifications.

Introduction: This study was designed to better understand pharmacy students' experiences and recognition of legal and ethical tensions existing in pharmacy practice as demonstrated in student-written law and ethics cases., Methods: A qualitative analysis of 132 student-written cases representing the team efforts of 1053 students over a 12-year time period was conducted. Student-written cases were coded and analyzed thematically., Results: Our results demonstrate the types of ethical and legal issues our students have experienced in pharmacy practice during the first five quarters of their professional education. Our data highlight three themes: 1) ethical dilemmas presented when the law is misapplied; 2) ethical dilemmas presented when an institutional policy or law was viewed as insufficient; and 3) ethical dilemmas presented as provider distress. The third theme was further subdivided into five subthemes., Conclusion: The themes that emerged from this study represent some of the ethical dilemmas that second professional year students have encountered and how these dilemmas may intersect with legal boundaries. Educators can use cases demonstrating these themes to reinforce law and ethics education in the curriculum, thus helping prepare students for pharmacy practice. This article recommends how and when to use case examples., (Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Background: Medication error (ME) is a worldwide issue, but most studies on ME have been undertaken in developed countries and very little is known about ME in Southeast Asian countries. This study aimed systematically to identify and review research done on ME in Southeast Asian countries in order to identify common types of ME and estimate its prevalence in this region., Methods: The literature relating to MEs in Southeast Asian countries was systematically reviewed in December 2014 by using; Embase, Medline, Pubmed, ProQuest Central and the CINAHL. Inclusion criteria were studies (in any languages) that investigated the incidence and the contributing factors of ME in patients of all ages., Results: The 17 included studies reported data from six of the eleven Southeast Asian countries: five studies in Singapore, four in Malaysia, three in Thailand, three in Vietnam, one in the Philippines and one in Indonesia. There was no data on MEs in Brunei, Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar and Timor. Of the seventeen included studies, eleven measured administration errors, four focused on prescribing errors, three were done on preparation errors, three on dispensing errors and two on transcribing errors. There was only one study of reconciliation error. Three studies were interventional., Discussion: The most frequently reported types of administration error were incorrect time, omission error and incorrect dose. Staff shortages, and hence heavy workload for nurses, doctor/nurse distraction, and misinterpretation of the prescription/medication chart, were identified as contributing factors of ME. There is a serious lack of studies on this topic in this region which needs to be addressed if the issue of ME is to be fully understood and addressed.

Background: Disclosure of health care incidents to patients and family members, as an ethical imperative, is becoming increasingly prevalent. The experiences of a woman whose husband died forms the basis for a case study of how she and her family and friends were able to renegotiate clinicians' understandings of what had gone wrong and influence their views of what needed to be done in response., Methods: The case was constructed in late 2010 using the replicated single-case approach, which involved repeated checking and correcting details of an interview with the patient's wife. Her husband, diagnosed with multiple myeloma in 2006, was hospitalized in January 2009 following a hip replacement. While in the hospital, he received a vasopressin overdose. He died in February 2009. THE DISCLOSURE PROCESS: The basis of the disclosure was the drug error, yet the patient's wife informed the caller (the head of the ICU), "You've got a greater problem than a drug error... you've got a massive, big communication problem here." The disclosure process, which unfolded in a series of phone calls and meetings, enabled the patient's wife and her family not only to ask questions but to put forward their knowledge, views, and concerns, and it moved from "disclosing an incident" (the vasopressin overdose) to addressing repeated communication failures and inappropriate behaviors. As a result, the disclosure process became a genuine dialogue that informed the clinicians as much as the family., Conclusions: This case study expands our understanding of what is possible as part of disclosure communication. Patients and family members can and should play a critical role in quality improvement and patient safety, given their knowledge and questions about the trajectory of care and their passion for ensuring that similar incidents do not recur to harm others.

Knowledge on errors is important to design safe nursing practice and its framework. This article presents results of a survey on this topic, including data of a representative sample of 724 nurses from 30 German hospitals. Participants predominantly remembered medication errors. Structural and organizational factors were rated as most important causes of errors. Reporting rates were considered low; this was explained by organizational barriers. Nurses in large part expressed having suffered from mental problems after error events. Nurses' perception focussing on medication errors seems to be influenced by current discussions which are mainly medication-related. This priority should be revised. Hospitals' risk management should concentrate on organizational deficits and positive error cultures. Decision makers are requested to tackle structural problems such as staff shortage.

Medication error is the most common and consistent type of error occurring in hospitals. This article attempts to explore the ethical issues relating to the nursing management of medication errors in clinical areas in Macau, China. A qualitative approach was adopted. Seven registered nurses who were involved in medication errors were recruited for in-depth interviews. The interviews were transcribed and analyzed using content analysis. Regarding the management of patients, the nurses acknowledged the mistakes but did not disclose the incidents to patients and relatives. Concerning management of the nurses involved by senior staff, most participants experienced fairness, comfort and understanding during the process of reporting and investigation. The ethical issues relating to the incidents were discussed, particularly in the Chinese context. There is a need for further study relating to the disclosure of medication incidents to patients and some suggestions were made.

Thousands of medical errors are occurring daily in physician's offices, in hospitals, and even upon discharge from the hospital, leading to unnecessary injury and death and costing billions of dollars. We have a systems approach that has been proven to be tried and true in aviation, nuclear energy and many other industrial settings. Being honest when medical mistakes occur, reporting them to national clearing house, objectively searching for root causes, avoiding the fixing of arbitrary blame, and then, where possible, implementing safeguards to minimize the occurrence of future mistakes, is the best way to enhance patient safety. But until the medical establishment takes medical errors and patient safety more seriously, and until the general public rises up in protest, it is up to the state and federal governments to take the lead in protecting the lives of innocent Americans by creating a public policy.

How medical errors are handled by individual physicians and hospital systems is a topic of considerable interest. In teaching hospitals, medical students and house officers often observe and commit mistakes. Commission of a mistake is associated with serious emotional turmoil and uncertainty among trainees as well as experienced physicians. Although disclosure is the ethical standard, the consequences of disclosure are feared by many. This article focuses on the issues that surround medical errors as they pertain to medical students and residents. It is important that this group of future physicians has appropriate training, mentoring, and support when dealing with errors.