Introduction
Transitional nursing could be defined as a set of services used to ensure a safe and accurate transition of patients from one level of health care to another. Hirschman et al. (2015) talk about transitional care as a “nurse-led intervention” (para. 1). This practice is mainly targeted at elderly patients with chronic diseases who need constant supervision and frequently move from one hospital to another. Adequate transitional nursing is of particular value since it helps to minimize the possibility of repeated hospitalization. In its turn, medication management describes services that optimize the use of medications and includes education of patients, evaluation, and reconciliation of the drugs. The problem lies in patients becoming more sensitive to medication errors when the transition of care happens. Thus, the risk of appearance of these mistakes poses a challenge for practical transitional nursing. This research paper investigates the problems with taking medication in the process of care transition. Below, there is also a summary of the mentioned issue as well as the significance of the topic, and the objectives of the present paper.
Significance of the Problem to Nursing
Undoubtedly, adequate nursing is impossible without accurate prescription of medicines and patients compliance with prescriptions. DelBoccio et al. (2015) indicate that in some cases, it is rather challenging for a diseased person to understand the medications and control when and how much to take them. Such behavior does not characterize all the patients since some have relatives to help them take medicines properly or are just more responsible in these terms by nature. Nevertheless, it is essential to ensure that the quality of treatment does not decline due to medication discrepancies once a patient moved from a hospital, where he or she always was under the supervision of nurses, to a home, where there is no trained specialist to assist. Consequently, medication management’s significance to nursing lies in the fact that problems with drug therapy threaten the health of a patient and roll back the prior treatment.
Purpose of the Research and Research Question
The purpose of the current research paper lies in identifying the most vulnerable to drug error groups of patients. The second goal is to suggest solutions that could help to minimize the potential probability of medication discrepancies during transitional nursing. According to Wheeler et al. (2018), mistakes with medicines in the majority of cases happen “on hospital admission and discharge” (p. 73). It is so because, at these stages, information on necessary pills could be transmitted incorrectly.
The research question of the given paper sounds as follows: Which category of patients requires specific practices in terms of medical management during transitional nursing? The preliminary answer is that this group includes elderly patients who either have no relatives to take care of them or often move from one clinic to another or are often re-hospitalized. To answer the raised question, the investigator could use qualitative methods of research and analyze the existing literature. In addition, a set of interviews could be conducted with nurses, physicians, and patients of different ages and health conditions. Talking about the possible solutions that could improve medicine management, one could think of the application of modern technologies so that nurses could trace all the prescriptions online. More comprehensive and in-depth research should be conducted to answer the research question and either confirm or reject the initial hypothesis.
Master’s Essentials that Aligned with the Topic
Talking about master’s essentials that aligned with the topic, one could think of improvement of quality, healthcare technologies, and advanced nursing practice. The first mentioned essential deals with standards and measures related to the quality of medical treatment. The timely implementation of practice that proved to be useful is one of the crucial skills that this essential allows acquiring. Secondly, healthcare technologies, as has already been mentioned, might be a step towards the improvement of medicine management in transitional nursing. Therefore, it is precious to be aware of existing technological capabilities. Finally, such essential as nursing practice at the master’s level is overall useful to get skills and knowledge in decision making, use of information technologies, and effective communication with other staff members and patients.
Conclusion
To sum up, it should be said the current research paper is aimed at the investigation of medicine management issues in connection with transitional nursing. More precisely, the paper tries to identify the most vulnerable group of patients that require additional help to escape medication discrepancies when they move from one form of health supervision to another. The significance of the issue is marked by a close link between the quality of treatment and the proper taking of drugs. The research is going to be conducted via both quantitative and qualitative methods. The analysis of the literature would be combined with interviews. The research topic is connected with such a master’s essentials as nursing practice at the master’s level, improvement of quality, and healthcare technologies.
References
DelBoccio, S., Smith, D., Hicks, M., Lowe, P., Graves-Rust, J., Volland, J., & Fryda, S. (2015). Successes and challenges in patient care transition programming: One hospital’s journey. OJIN: The Online Journal of Issues in Nursing, 20(3).
Hirschman, K. B., Shaid, E., McCauley, K., Pauly, M. V., & Naylor, M. D. (2015). Continuity of care: The transitional care model. Online Journal of Issues in Nursing, 20(3).
Wheeler, A. J., Scahill, S., Hopcroft, D., & Stapleton, H. (2018). Reducing medication errors at transitions of care is everyone’s business. Australian Prescriber, 41(3), 73-77.