Preventing Medication Errors: Lessons From a Patient

A Nurse Aide, an Emergency Room Clerk, and a Patient I have great appreciation for doctors and nurses, hospitals, and patients. In high school I worked as a nurse aide in a convalescent home. I fed, dressed, and showered elderly patients, many of them immobile. I shaved gentlemen's facial stubble and polished ladies' fingernails. In college and in graduate school, I worked as an emergency room clerk. I witnessed a lot, including amazing doctors and nurses caring for patients and saving lives. I have also been a patient. First, when I had an appendectomy at age eight and then when I gave natural childbirth twice. All were pleasant experiences. My time as a nurse aide and an emergency room clerk taught me about illnesses, diseases, tests, diagnoses, allergies, treatment, medical jargon, pharmaceuticals, and patient care. I never imagined that, one day I would be a hospital patient who would experience not only one serious surgical error but also many medication errors during the first fifteen days of a twenty-six day hospital stay. Good doctors, nurses, and other health care professionals made unintentional but potentially life threatening and preventable mistakes. From a patient perspective, I offer ways hospital healthcare professionals can avoid life-threatening medication errors and prevent patients from enduring unacceptable emotional stress and trauma. The Trauma of Medication Errors A week after my laparoscopic hysterectomy, I was in the emergency room suffering f...
Source: Healthy Living - The Huffington Post - Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news