Patient safety: medication incidents 2014

Hours of learning: 3

Publication date: January 2014

Aim
To promote the safer use of medicines in clinical practice through a better understanding of why medication incidents happen.

Intended learning outcomes
At the end of this course you should be able to:

• define what is meant by a medication incident
• describe medication-related errors and their impact on the health service
• promote the reporting and investigating of medication incidents as a means to improving patient safety
• identify the causes of errors and medication incidents in practice
• list the role and functions of the organisations established to reduce risk
• promote staff education and safe systems of practice as effective means of reducing medication errors.