Effects of interdisciplinary collaboration in hospitals on medication errors: an integrative review

Abstract

Medication errors are commonly affected by breakdowns in communication. Interdisciplinary collaboration is an important means of facilitating communication between health professionals in clinical practice. To date, there has been little systematic examination of past research in this area. Areas covered: The aims of this integrative review are to examine how interdisciplinary collaboration influences medication errors in hospitals, the araes of interdisciplinary collaboration that have been researched in previous work, and recommendations for future research and practice. An integrative review was undertaken of research papers (N = 30) published from inception to August 2017 using MEDLINE, the Cochrane Library, CINAHL, PsycINFO, and Embase. Expert opinion: Five different areas of interdisciplinary collaboration were identified in research involving medication errors. These areas were: communication through tools including guidelines, protocols, and communication logs; participation of pharmacists in interdisciplinary teams; collaborative medication review on admission and at discharge; collaborative workshops and conferences; and complexity of role differentiation and environment. Despite encouraging results demonstrated in past research, medication errors continued to occur. Increased focus is needed on developing tailored, individualized strategies that can be applied in particular contexts to create further reductions in medication errors. Greater understandings are also needed about the changing roles of various disciplines.

Nurses’ perceptions of high‐alert medication administration safety: A qualitative descriptive study

“…The importance of interdisciplinary collaboration to medication safety has been reported. Research emphasizes the need for better reporting of errors, consensus on the definition of a reportable error, communication tools, pharmacists included in rounds, collaborative medication reviews, workshops and conferences and complexity of role differentiation and environment (Hawkins et al, ; Manias, ). The nurses in our study reaffirmed the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration, especially with the pharmacist, to ensure HAM safety.…”

Os Erros De Medicação E Os Fatores De Risco Associados a Sua Prescrição

“…Além de conhecer as fragilidades presentes nas diversas etapas do sistema de medicação, é fundamental averiguar se os profissionais tem ciência dos protocolos estabelecidos pela instituição. Paralelamente, torna-se essencial, à cultura de segurança a identificação dos motivos pelos quais estes protocolos não estejam sendo desenvolvidos adequadamente (9) . Cada etapa tem a sua especificidade e relevância, mas a prescrição por si mesma merece uma atenção diferenciada uma vez que ela pode ser comparada a um comando a partir do qual as intervenções serão realizadas.…”

“…Cada etapa tem a sua especificidade e relevância, mas a prescrição por si mesma merece uma atenção diferenciada uma vez que ela pode ser comparada a um comando a partir do qual as intervenções serão realizadas. Historicamente, a caligrafia dos prescritores é citada como um elemento que compromete a segurança necessária ao procedimento (9). Apesar de ter sido identificado um percentual de 7,23% prescrições ilegíveis, houve também a constatação de 43,37% registros pouco legíveis.…”

Students Involvement in Interdisciplinary Development of Innovative Health Solutions: A Swot Analysis

“…When health workers collaborate together, something is there that was not there before" (World Health Organization, 2010, p.36). Research demonstrates that health professionals working collaboratively can positively address current health challenges, strengthening the health system and improving health outcomes (Farrell, Luptak, Supiano, Pacala, & De Lisser, 2018;Manias, 2018). Joining together information from different backgrounds, sharing professional expertise and achieving shared understanding enables the production of new and more sophisticated knowledge (Lavin et al, 2001).…”

“…Students recognition of their experience as an opportunity to help patients and families to deal with their dependency in order to improve quality of life reinforce the work of Manias (2018) and Farrell (2018) recognizing the potential of interdisciplinary collaboration to positively address health challenges and improving health outcomes. Liking research into practice could be an opportunity to engage students in learning research process in their bachelors.…”