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Analysis of Dispensing Errors Made by First-Year Pharmacy Students in a Virtual Dispensing Assessment

Pharmacists have a crucial role in the supply of medications and ensuring optimal patient outcomes. However, with the increased use of prescription medications, there is a potential for dispensing errors to occur. Some dispensing errors can result in patient harm, with some leading to death. The dev...

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Autores principales: Chuang, Sara, Grieve, Kate Lorraine, Mak, Vivienne
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8005939/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33804801
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/pharmacy9010065
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author Chuang, Sara
Grieve, Kate Lorraine
Mak, Vivienne
author_facet Chuang, Sara
Grieve, Kate Lorraine
Mak, Vivienne
author_sort Chuang, Sara
collection PubMed
description Pharmacists have a crucial role in the supply of medications and ensuring optimal patient outcomes. However, with the increased use of prescription medications, there is a potential for dispensing errors to occur. Some dispensing errors can result in patient harm, with some leading to death. The development of safe and accurate dispensing skills in pharmacy students is an essential part of the pharmacy curriculum to prevent such dispensing errors from occurring. A retrospective study was conducted on a virtual dispensing assessment completed by first-year pharmacy students using MyDispense at Monash University. Students were assessed on their ability to safely and accurately dispense four prescriptions. The students’ answers in the assessment were then analyzed using qualitative and quantitative methods. Errors in drug quantity, number of repeats, product, patient and prescriber selection were quantitatively analyzed. Through the development of a codebook, frequency of errors was determined for label directions and appropriate use of ancillary labels. In this study, the dispensing errors that were identified depended on the class of medication. Errors in label directions were most common, with the majority of errors displaying incorrect route of administration, drug formulation and/or frequency of dosing. Identified errors were then further categorized into potential severity of harm, ranging from “no harm” to “severe harm”. The findings from this study show the types of errors made by students that are preventable and the potential for first-year pharmacy students to benefit from more comprehensive introductions to dispensing guides and safe environments to practice.
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spelling pubmed-80059392021-03-30 Analysis of Dispensing Errors Made by First-Year Pharmacy Students in a Virtual Dispensing Assessment Chuang, Sara Grieve, Kate Lorraine Mak, Vivienne Pharmacy (Basel) Article Pharmacists have a crucial role in the supply of medications and ensuring optimal patient outcomes. However, with the increased use of prescription medications, there is a potential for dispensing errors to occur. Some dispensing errors can result in patient harm, with some leading to death. The development of safe and accurate dispensing skills in pharmacy students is an essential part of the pharmacy curriculum to prevent such dispensing errors from occurring. A retrospective study was conducted on a virtual dispensing assessment completed by first-year pharmacy students using MyDispense at Monash University. Students were assessed on their ability to safely and accurately dispense four prescriptions. The students’ answers in the assessment were then analyzed using qualitative and quantitative methods. Errors in drug quantity, number of repeats, product, patient and prescriber selection were quantitatively analyzed. Through the development of a codebook, frequency of errors was determined for label directions and appropriate use of ancillary labels. In this study, the dispensing errors that were identified depended on the class of medication. Errors in label directions were most common, with the majority of errors displaying incorrect route of administration, drug formulation and/or frequency of dosing. Identified errors were then further categorized into potential severity of harm, ranging from “no harm” to “severe harm”. The findings from this study show the types of errors made by students that are preventable and the potential for first-year pharmacy students to benefit from more comprehensive introductions to dispensing guides and safe environments to practice. MDPI 2021-03-20 /pmc/articles/PMC8005939/ /pubmed/33804801 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/pharmacy9010065 Text en © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Chuang, Sara
Grieve, Kate Lorraine
Mak, Vivienne
Analysis of Dispensing Errors Made by First-Year Pharmacy Students in a Virtual Dispensing Assessment
title Analysis of Dispensing Errors Made by First-Year Pharmacy Students in a Virtual Dispensing Assessment
title_full Analysis of Dispensing Errors Made by First-Year Pharmacy Students in a Virtual Dispensing Assessment
title_fullStr Analysis of Dispensing Errors Made by First-Year Pharmacy Students in a Virtual Dispensing Assessment
title_full_unstemmed Analysis of Dispensing Errors Made by First-Year Pharmacy Students in a Virtual Dispensing Assessment
title_short Analysis of Dispensing Errors Made by First-Year Pharmacy Students in a Virtual Dispensing Assessment
title_sort analysis of dispensing errors made by first-year pharmacy students in a virtual dispensing assessment
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8005939/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33804801
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/pharmacy9010065
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