Topic: Medication Safety ESSAY

Define medication safety - 150-250 words

• This will set the scene for your essay so make sure you have an explicit and specific definition
• Don't just talk around the issue e.g. giving facts about medication safety - tell me what comprise medication safety
• Look at all the key words and make sure you address them in your definition - e.g.- so don't just define medication safety in general - make the link to nursing
• Use evidence to back up your definition - if you don't you will fail this section
• Look beyond a dictionary for your definition - the professional issues have been chosen because they are significant to nursing - so you should be using a source that reflects this
• An example is always a good way to provide some extra detail to your definition
• If you choose medication safety - make sure you define what this means and not medication errors - these are not the same thing

Discuss the significance of your chosen professional issue (medication safety) to nursing. 500-700 words

• How does the issue impact on nursing?
• Why is it a professional issue?
• What is the impact on nurses (individually) and the nursing profession?
• You can include facts and figures about medication safety

NB: Use evidence to back up your discussion - if you don't you will fail this section

Discuss how your chosen professional issue impacts on patient safety. 500 - 700 words.

• This should follow on from your discussion above - if the issue impacts on nurses then there must be a flow on effect to patients
• Look at the key words here - "patient safety" - make sure you are discussing this and not just patient care in general - you could define what is meant by patient safety to focus your discussion
• You can use facts and figure here e.g. how many adverse events are there each year as a result of medication errors?
• What are the consequences of these adverse events to patients?

NB: Use evidence to back up your discussion - if you don't you will fail this section

Discuss the strategies that can be utilised to minimise the impact of your chosen professional issue on nursing practice and patient safety. 350 - 550 words

• This is essentially asking what we can do to fix the problem
• This should follow on logically from your discussion in the previous 2 sections
• What strategies or approaches currently exist? E.g. policies, protocols, training
• You need to include at least TWO strategies in this section or you will fail this section
• It is a good idea to number these and discuss separately - that way you can ensure that you have identified the correct number and provided sufficient detail for each
• There are 2 elements here that you are being asked to consider - so make sure you use this explicit language - nursing practice and patient safety - i.e.: if we use training what is the impact of medication safety on nursing practice and patient safety

NB: Use evidence to back up your discussion - if you don't you will fail this section

Evidence used

• As a rule of thumb in academic writing you should have 1 reference per 150 words - so for a 1500 word assignment this should be 10 sources
• The marking guide asks for 8 sources (more than this if you want to earn a HD for this section)
• The more time you take on your research & the more widely you read - the better your essay will be. You will develop a better understanding of the topic and this will come through in your writing
• Nursing journals - this is a discussion of a professional issue that impacts on nursing so it follows that you should use nursing sources - the marking guide specifies at least 4 nursing journals
• You can include Australian and international literature here - however the emphasis should be on the Australian experience as these issues were sourced from the NSW Nurses' and Midwives Association
• Where can you find this evidence?
• Library databases - e.g. CINAHL - use your key words to find relevant articles
• Google Scholar
• Look at the reference lists of articles that you find that are useful to help you broaden your search
• Professional nursing bodies e.g. NSWNMA, Emergency Nurses' Association,
• Government websites e.g. Australian Commission on Safety & Quality in healthcare (particularly relevant if you are looking at medication safety)
• Health Department websites e.g. good for finding policies, protocols
• Text books - probably not that useful for this essay - however you might use them as a starting point - remember that chapters from the same book count as 1 source
• Make sure you are looking current evidence - so from the last 5-10 years
• NB: don't just do a google search - you will not find the best evidence this way
• Don't use Wikipedia - this is not an academic source - the reason being that anyone can go in and amend or add information at any time so you can't rely on the validity/truth of this source.

Attachment:- Assignment File.rar