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Development of a Health Care Policy

Introduction

Development of a health care policy is one of the ways through which developing nations can be influenced to take actions that promote public health and reduce mortality rates, especially in countries where health inequality is a common problem. The Nature of health policy developed largely depends on specific health care problems that exist in a country at any given time.

Furthermore, one has to consider various social determinants of health in a country before developing and implementing a health policy (Kumar and Preetha, 2012). According to Kumar and Preetha (2012), social factors such as demographic patterns, political and economic changes, cultural issues, and learning environments are believed to influence health situations of many countries around the world.

A health policy that is aimed at reducing health inequality can be effective in promoting public health, and can greatly be supported by a country whose health is negatively impacted by disparities in health care. This paper explores the concept of health policy development and implementation about health inequality while giving special consideration to Malawi.

Health Care Policy: Rationale for Selecting Malawi

Malawi has been chosen for this case study because it is one of the world’s developing countries whose public health is negatively impacted by health inequality and lack of health policy to guide proper health care delivery. According to Daire and Khalil (2015), failure to access primary health care is one of the causes of high death rates among children aged below five years in Malawi.

Daire and Khalil (2015) further assert that health care for socio-economic barriers largely face Children in Malawi that policy makers in the health sector must address to promote positive child health in the country. Children who are born to low-income families in Malawi are highly likely to experience limited access to health care as compared to those who come from wealthy families. The main reason for the high infant mortality rates among low-income families in Malawi is a lack of primary health care policy.

According to Makaula, Bloch, and Muula et al., (2012) and Ustrup, Ngwira, and Fischer, et al., (2014), Malawi continues to experience low life expectancy because it currently lacks a primary health care policy to guide health care access among poor families with children aged below 5 years. Now, Malawi utilizes the Essential Health Package (EHP) program to implement primary health care.

This has impacted negatively on health care access among poor households and a significant reduction in life expectancy in the country. In this regard, Malawi is one of the developing countries that are experiencing high rates of infant deaths due to lack of primary health care policy and would; therefore, attract the attention of health policy makers (Daire and Khalil, 2015).

Social Determinants of Health in Malawi and Why they should be Addressed

There are two major social determinants of health in Malawi that need to be addressed. According to Kumar and Preetha, (2012), social determinants of health refer to factors in the social setting that influence the ability of a country’s population to obtain care at any given time. Examples of social determinants of health include socio-economic factors, family patterns, cultural beliefs and attitudes, learning environments, and demographic patterns.

In Malawi, the two social determinants of health that should concern policy makers are; economic affordability and geographic accessibility of health care facilities. These two social determinants are highly rampant among residents of rural Malawi. Rural populations in Malawi cannot access quality health care due to limited finances and high concentration of health care facilities in urban areas (Ustrup, Ngwira, and Fischer, et al., 2014).

In a study conducted by Ustrup, Ngwira, and Fischer, et al., (2014), the researchers have found that health care facilities are mainly located in urban Malawi, and this makes households based in rural Malawi to travel to the urban areas to seek for care. Ideally, rural Malawi does not only lack adequate health care facilities, but it also has poor roads that make it difficult for occupants to reach urban areas.

The long travel time coupled with high costs of transport prevent children from low-income families from receiving quality care, hence the observed high infant mortality rates in the country (Makaula, Bloch, and Muula, et al., 2012). Furthermore, variation in economic affordability among affluent and low-income families determines the nature of care that these two groups of populations can receive in Malawi.

Families in rural Malawi with either small or lack of basic income are faced with the challenge of obtaining care for their children as opposed to those in wealthy regions with high basic income. For this reason, limited economic affordability among residents of rural Malawi presents significant economic burden which prevents families from obtaining quality care for their children (Ustrup, Ngwira, and Fischer, et al., 2014; & Makaula, Bloch, and Muula, et al., 2012).

There is a great need to address social determinants of health about economic affordability and geographic accessibility of health care facilities to increase access to care for families in rural Malawi. As Daire and Khalil (2015) explain, one of the ways through which health inequality in Malawi can be solved is by addressing those factors that hinder citizens from accessing health care.

It is only by addressing these social determinants of health that Malawi will be able to reduce infant mortality and to achieve the Millennium Development Goals. Health care accessibility in Malawi will greatly be improved if the ability of low-income families to meet health care costs and to access health care facilities is enhanced (Daire and Khalil, 2015).

Potential Public Issues that might be encountered

Two major public issues may be faced in Malawi in an attempt to influence health policy development in the country. The possible general issues that may be encountered are related to the level of cultural awareness and health literacy among the country’s population. Health literacy refers to the ability of individuals to comprehend basic health information and their capacity to utilize it in decision-making.

High health literacy is directly related to improved health outcomes while limited health literacy is associated with poor public health. According to Smith-Greenway (2015), high infant mortality rates in Malawi are largely attributed to limited health literacy among low-income families in rural areas. Residents of rural Malawi rarely receive health education, and the public sector has not initiated any programs in those areas to keep citizens informed about health.

Also, the majority of households in rural Malawi can only speak their local language, and they do not understand any information presented to them in pure English (Smith-Greenway, 2015). Lack of public health education and proper communication of public health information are the primary causes of limited health literacy in Malawi. Consequently, limited health literacy may impede successful development and implementation of health policy in Malawi (Ustrup, Ngwira, and Fischer, et al., 2014).

The other public issue that may be encountered during health policy development and implementation in Malawi is the level of cultural awareness among the country’s population. According to Daire and Khalil (2015), cultural knowledge in a country determines the possibility with which a new policy can be developed and implemented. In this regard, it becomes difficult to implement a health policy that goes against the cultural beliefs and values of a country’s population.

As Reiney, Watkins, Ryman, Sandhu, Bo, and Benerjee, (2011) explain, low cultural awareness is a big problem in Malawi because it negatively affects health utilization among the country’s population. Specifically, cultural beliefs and values of the country’s population largely influence the patterns of health utilization in the country in the sense that, health underutilization is common in rural Malawi where occupants do not believe in care that is being offered by health care organizations. Ideally, low cultural awareness among rural populations in Malawi may prevent successful implementation of health policy in the country (Ustrup, Ngwira, and Fischer, et al., 2014).

Relationship Between Health Inequality and Life Expectancy in Malawi

There is an inverse relationship between health inequality and life expectancy in Malawi. In this regard, high disparities in health are associated with low life expectancy while low disparities in health are related to high life expectancy in Malawi. Life expectancy is low when infant mortality rate is high while life expectancy is high when infant mortality rate is low (Deurzen, Oorschot, and Ingen, 2014).

According to the World Health Organization report of 2017, health disparity in Malawi is significantly higher than that of Japan. Furthermore, an infant born in Malawi is highly likely to die at the age of 47 while a child born in Japan will probably die at the age of 87. Therefore, when health inequality is high in Malawi, life expectancy in the country is significantly low, especially among the rural populations (World Health Organization, 2012).

The inverse relationship between health inequality and life expectancy among poor populations is supported by research evidence. In a study conducted by Deurzen, Oorschot and Ingen (2014) the researchers have found that the rate of infant mortality is higher among the poor than among the rich populations. Therefore, a policy that can reduce health inequality will help to reduce infant mortality rate and eventually raise life expectancy (Deurzen, Oorschot, and Ingen, 2014).

Current Efforts in Malawi to Reduce Health Inequalities

The government of Malawi has worked hard to reduce health inequalities in the country with the aim of reducing infant mortality rates that occur among its rural populations. These efforts are geared towards addressing two major social determinants of health: economic affordability and geographic accessibility of health care facilities. As Ustrup, Ngwira, and Fischer, et. al., (2014) explain, governments can increase geographic accessibility of health care facilities by constructing additional organizations in rural areas.

Between 2003 and 2010, the Government of Malawi constructed a total of 39 health centers in the rural areas. This has helped its rural populations to access health care and to save time and money that could have been spent in traveling to the urban areas to seek for health care. Additionally, Malawi has taken appropriate actions to mitigate financial barrier among its rural populations by increasing their ability to meet health care cost.

In the year 2010, the Government of Malawi signed an agreement with facilities that operate under the Christian Health Association of Malawi (CHAM) to allow free health care services for mothers and children. With free access to child and maternal health care services, Malawi has been able to record a decrease in infant mortality rate with a slight increase in life expectancy (Ustrup, Ngwira, and Fischer, et. al., 2014).

Health Policy

The best health policy to address health inequality in Malawi would be that which will get the support of the country’s population, considering the fact that residents of rural Malawi have limited health literacy and do not have trust in the care offered by health care organizations (Makaula, Bloch, and Muula, et al., 2012).

An example of a policy that might be developed to reduce health inequality in Malawi is the creation of a National Development and Social Fund to support programs that facilitate construction of health care facilities in the rural areas, while at the same time meeting the health care costs of mothers and children who reside in rural Malawi.

The Government of Malawi should set aside funds to facilitate implementation of this policy to ensure that both rural and urban populations have equal access to health care. Successful implementation of this policy will result in a reduction in infant mortality rates among the poor populations in Malawi, which will eventually translate into high life expectancy in the country (Ustrup, Ngwira, and Fischer, et. al., 2014; Dairen and Khalil, 2015).

References

Daire, J. & Khalil, D. (2015). Analysis of maternal and child health policies in Malawi: The methodological perspective. Malawi Medical Journal, 27(4): 135-139.

Deurzen, I. V., Oorschot, W. V. & Ingen, E. (2014). The link between inequality and population health in low and middle-income countries: Policy myth or social reality? PLoS ONE, 9(12): e115109. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0115109

Kumar, S. & Preetha, G. S. (2012). Health promotion: An effective tool for global health. Indian Journal of Community Medicine, 37(1): 5-12. doi: 10.4103/0970-0218.94009

Makaula, P., Bloch, P…..& Muula, A. S. (2012). Primary health care in rural Malawi: A qualitative assessment exploring the relevance of the community-directed interventions approach. BMC Health Services Research, 12: 328. doi: 10.1186/1472-6963-12-328

Reiney, J. J., Watkins, M., Ryman, T. K., Sandhu, P., Bo, A. & Benerjee, K. (2011). Reasons related to non-vaccination and under-vaccination of children in low and middle-income countries: Findings for a systematic review of the published literature, 1999-2009. Vaccine, 29(46): 8215-8221. doi: 10.1016/j.vaccine.2011.08.096

Smith-Greenway, E. (2015). Are literacy skills associated with young adults’ health in Africa: Evidence from Malawi. Social Science and Medicine, 127: 124-133. doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2014.07.036.

Ustrup, M., Ngwira, B…& Fischer, T. (2014). Potential barriers to healthcare in Malawi for under-five children with a cough and fever: A national household survey. Journal of Health Population and Nutrition, 32 (1): 68-78.

World Health Organization, (WHO). (2017). Fact file on health inequality. Retrieved from http://www.who.int/sdhconference/background/news/facts/en/

Case Study Report: Patient Care Action Plan

Case Study report: Patient Care Action Plan

Case Study Report

Name

Institution

Case Study Report

Patient Care Action Plan for: William

Main Contact: Gladys

Main Contact’s Relation to Client: Wife

Council area where client lives: London

Client Address: 49 Featherstone Street, London, United Kingdom

Background This patient care action plan is for William. William currently has liver cancer and he is very much worried about his condition and how his wife Gladys will cope with the situation. When William was growing up, he thought that he would live to reach ninety years old, like his parents, without any serious illness. His dream of living longer has just been shattered after he recently discovered the presence of blood in his stool. On visiting the hospital, William has received a confirmation from Dr. Maxwell that he has liver cancer. William’s immediate carer is his wife, Gladys, who provides assistance with daily living activities as well as with social support. Since William’s kids have their own families and they are mostly committed to work, he has limited access to family support. His living setting is the home environment, and he frequently visits the hospital from where he is cared for by Dr. Maxwell and nurse Linda. Dr. Maxwell has involved other physicians in William’s care. The doctor is working together with other highly qualified healthcare professionals to ensure that William receives the support that he needs for the longest period possible. William’s health condition is not that severe, and his recent health care trajectory indicates that he has a positive progress. His positive health progress is mainly attributed to good communication and a positive relationship with his healthcare providers, including the social worker. At the moment, William largely depends on services obtained from only one GP healthcare resource.

Needs Assessment From the PCC4U Needs Assessment, it is evident that some of Williams needs have been met while there are others, which have not been effectively addressed.
Needs that are currently met The positive progress that is being observed in the patient is attributed to primary health care services that he is now receiving from the doctors and nurse Linda (Llobera, Sanso, and Leiva, 2017). Through support obtained from the doctors, William has learned and can apply various health promotion options that are available to him. Also, William has been informed about the right people he should approach in case his health condition gets worse. Immediate needs that should be met It is important to prioritize patients’ unmet needs to plan effectively on how to help them manage their health conditions (Khosla, Patel, and Sharma, 2012). There are two major immediate needs that William should be assisted to meet. During his interaction with nurse Linda, William explains that he is in a bit of pain and that he still has a lousy appetite. These conditions are common among older people with terminal illnesses (Goodman, Dening, and Zubair, et al., 2016). In this regard, William should be taught how he can solve his appetite problems and how he can effectively manage pain. Potential needs that might arise William’s healthcare providers should be prepared to address potential needs that might arise in the course of care. It is important to identify possible emotional and physical health problems that may arise to formulate strategies that can be used to prevent them early (Clarke, Bourn, Skoufalos, Beck, and Castillo, 2017). To meet William’s physical and emotional needs, the healthcare providers should engage specialists in palliative medicine and palliative nursing, as well as family members, to provide necessary care as early as possible (Llobera, Sanso, and Leiva, 2017).

Local Resources and Services Scan

Service name and brief description	Address/contact details and website URL (if available)	Opening hours/contact hours	How to access (e.g. is a referral required?)	What needs can this service help to meet?	Healthcare team member responsible for referral/action	Additional Comments
Companions of London	110 Gloucester Ave, London NW1 8HX, +44 020 3519 8001 www.companionsoflondon.com/palliative-care	Every day: 9.00 am to 5.00 pm. Closed on Saturday and Sunday	No referral required	Primary care, including emotional and social support.	Palliative nurses are available even with short notice.	This is a useful back up for William’s primary care and emotional and social support needs.
St. Joseph’s Hospice	Mare St, London E8 4SA, + 44 020 8525 6000 https://www.stjh.org.uk/contact-us	8.30 am to 5.00 pm every day	Referrals are necessary. From 8.00 am to 6.00 pm every day by calling 0300 30 30 400.	Provides all primary care services needed by patients with serious illnesses.	Sharon Finn offers social services support and can connect patients with palliative care specialists in the facility.	This facility provides hospice care that William may need shortly.
Meadow House Hospice	Uxbridge Road, Middlesex, UB1 3HW +44 020 8967 5179 http://www.meadowhousehospice.org.uk/	Open Monday to Friday from 8.30 am to 5.00 pm, Saturday from 12 pm to 2.30 pm, Closed on Sunday.	Referrals are required. From Friday 8.30 am – 16.00 pm by calling 020 8967 5758	Psychiatric and primary care services.	Jane Cowap is the lead clinician who specializes in psychiatric care for geriatric patients.	This facility will be appropriate for William in future when he will be in need of psychiatric support.
Pembridge Palliative Care Unit	Exmoor St, London W10 6DZ, UK +44 20 8102 5000 http://www.cqc.org.uk/location/RYXY2	Open 24 hours daily	No referral required	Psychological and physical support.	Doctor Louise Ashley specializes in the treatment of psychological problems, especially for patients with physical disabilities.	A useful facility for screening and diagnostic procedures.
Marie Curie Hospice, Hampstead	11 Lyndhurst Gardens, Hampstead, London NW3 5NS, UK. +44 20 7853 3400 https://www.mariecurie.org.uk/help/hospice-care/hospices/hampstead	Open Monday to Friday from 8.00 am to 6.00 pm, Saturday 11.00 am to 6.00 pm, and Closed on Sunday	No referrals are necessary	Offers emotional and social support for patients with terminal illness and their families.	Lead nurse Angel and Marilyn can assist patients with making appointments and follow-up.	William can get necessary emotional and social support from this facility.
Hospice UK	34-44 Britannia St, Kings Cross, London WC1X 9JG +44 20 7520 8200 http://www.hospiceuk.org/	Open Monday to Friday from 9.00 am to 5.00 pm, Closed on Saturday and Sunday	No referrals are necessary	Provides all types of home-based care needed by patients with serious illness.	Carol Warlford is the Chief Clinical Officer in charge of all forms of palliative care in the facility.	This facility is appropriate for meeting William’s physical, social, physiological, and emotional needs both now and in future.
St. Christopher’s Personal Care	Sydenham, UK +44 20 8768 4500 http://www.stcpersonalcare.org.uk/	Open every day from 9.00 am to 5.00 pm.	No referrals are required	Offers support with all forms of care including medication, nutrition, activities of daily living, social support, and emotional support.	Denise, Maxine, Tony, and Sandra are highly trained to offer palliative care to all patients with various needs.	The facility is a useful back up for William’s palliative care needs.

Action Plan

Medication: The nurse should plan a visit to the physician to provide the right prescription for William to enable him to manage pain effectively (Ramanayake, Dilanka, and Premasiri, 2016; & Al-Mahrezi, and Al-Mandhari, 2016). This arrangement should be made as soon as possible.

Nutrition: The nurse should contact a nutritionist to help with the development of a feeding plan for William and his wife. Since appetite is one of William’s problems that should be solved urgently, this action should be started as soon as possible (Forbat, Haraldsdottir, Lewis, and Hepburn, 2016; & Caccaialanza, Pedrazzoli, and Zagonel, et al., 2016).

Physical Activity: William’s wife should contact a trainer to help William with physical exercise (Lowe, Tan, Faily, Watanabe, and Courneya, 2016; & Chandrasekar, Tribett, and Ramchandran, 2016). This arrangement should be made before William’s next meeting with the GP.

Counselling: The nurse should plan a visit to a professional psychologist to plan counselling sessions for William and his family (Pino, Parry, Land, Faull, Feathers, and Seymour, 2016). This plan should be ready before William’s next meeting with the GP.

Referral to Hospice: The nurse should contact a social worker to provide William and his wife with detailed legal information related to the procedures he should follow when he will be required to relocate from home-based care to the hospice (Hui and Bruera, 2016). This arrangement should be made when William will no longer be in a position to make decisions by himself.

Reference List

Al-Mahrezi, A. & Al-Mandhari, Z. (2016). Palliative care: Time for action. Oman Medical Journal, 31(3): 161-163. doi: 10.5001/omj.2016.32

Caccaialanza, R., Pedrazzoli, P…& Zagonel, V. (2016). Nutritional support in cancer patients: A position paper from the Italian Society of Medical Oncology (AIOM) and the Italian Society of Artificial Nutrition and Metabolism (SINPE). Journal of Cancer, 7(2): 131-135. doi: 10.7150/jca.13818

Chandrasekar, D., Tribett, E. & Ramchandran, K. (2016). Integrated palliative care and oncologic care in non-small-cell lung cancer. Current Treatment Options in Oncology, 17: 23. doi: 10.1007/s11864-016-0397-1

Clarke, J., Bourn, S., Skoufalos, A., Beck, E. & Castillo, D. J. (2017). An innovative approach to health care delivery for patients with chronic conditions. Population Health Management, 20(1): 23-30. doi: 10.1089/pop.2016.0076

Forbat, L., Haraldsdottir, E., Lewis, M. & Hepburn, K. (2016). Supporting the provision of palliative care in the home environment: A proof-of-concept single-arm trial of a palliative carers education package (PrECEPt). BMJ Open, 6(10): e012681. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2016-012681

Goodman, C., Dening, T…& Zubair, M. (2016). Effective health care for older people living and dying in care homes: A realist review. BMC Health Services Research, 16: 269. doi: 10.1186/s12913-016-1493-4

Hui, D. & Bruera, E. (2016). Integrating palliative care into the trajectory of cancer care. Nature Reviews Clinical Oncology, 13(3): 158-171. doi: 10.1038/nrclinonc.2015.201

Khosla, D., Patel, F. D. & Sharma, S. C. (2012). Palliative care in India: Current progress and future needs. Indian Journal of Palliative Care, 18(3): 149-154. doi: 10.4103/0973-1075.105683

Llobera, J., Sanso, N….& Leiva, A. (2017). Strengthening primary health care teams with palliative care leaders: Protocol for a cluster randomized clinical trial. BMC Palliative Care, 17: 4. doi: 10.1186/s12904-017-0217-9

Lowe, S., Tan, M., Faily, J., Watanabe, S. & Courneya, K. (2016). Physical activity in advanced cancer patients: A systematic review protocol. Systematic Reviews, 5: 43. doi: 10.1186/s13643-016-0220-x

Pino, M., Parry, R., Land, V., Faull, C., Feathers, L., & Seymour, J. (2016). Engaging terminally ill patients in end of life talk: How experienced palliative medicine doctors navigate the dilemma of promoting discussions about dying. PLoS ONE 11(5): e0156174. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0156174

Ramanayake, R., Dilanka, G. & Premasiri, L. (2016). Palliative care: Role of family physicians. Journal of Family Medicine and Primary Care, 5(2): 234-237. doi: 10.4103/2249-4863.192356

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Error Management Reflection

Error Management

Types of prescriptions, roles of intra and interprofessional teams, and medicine storage and disposal

This error management reflection covers what I have learnt from the hospital placement by considering Borton’s model. Specifically, I have explored the error reporting process in the hospital and how it has helped me to understand the principles of clinical governance. Furthermore, this error management reflection describes the difference in error reporting processes in community pharmacy compared to hospital pharmacy.

During my placement, I have discovered that the main types of prescriptions in the pharmacy are outpatient prescriptions, cleansing preparation prescriptions, and ward order prescriptions. The pharmacy rarely uses hospital charts and it does not use TPN requests at all. Furthermore, I have learnt that the pharmacy team members perform roles, which are complementary to one another.

For instance, the pharmacist checks medicine history, the technician reviews medicine history and dispenses drugs, and ATO checks stock of drugs and delivers medicines to the wards. Again the pharmacy has well documented standard operating procedures related to storage and disposal of medicines. In the pharmacy, drugs are stored in shelves and they are categorized based on their functions. Moreover, medicines must be checked and reviewed before they are disposed.

Error management: How error reporting improves clinical governance

Error reporting plays a significant role in improving clinical governance. According to Freedman (2006), NHS institutions rely on clinical governance to deliver quality care to patients by allowing parents to get involved in their treatment process. Since the patient is the first priority in clinical governance, there is always great need for hospitals to ensure that their error reporting systems are working well in order to improve clinical governance.

Medication errors are avoidable mistakes that are made by health care practitioners during prescription, dispensation, and administration of drugs. Such errors negatively impact on patient safety and outcomes. As MRA (2014) explains, error reporting is one of the ways through which health care practitioners learn their mistakes and it therefore plays a big role in improving patient safety.

During my placement, I have discovered that the main source of medication errors in the facility is incorrect drug labelling, and that error reporting greatly improves clinical governance. Specifically, I have discovered that the hospital has a stable system for detecting and reporting medication errors. In addition, I have learnt that, since it is possible to detect medication errors, the facility should have a plan of how such errors can be prevented.

According to Polnariev (2016), through error reporting, healthcare organizations can easily identify and mitigate risks early enough. Therefore, the facility should employ appropriate measures to prevent recurrence of medication errors in future in order to improve clinical governance.

Difference in error reporting in community and hospital pharmacies

Error reporting in community pharmacy differs significantly from that of a hospital. During my placement, I have been able to identify two major differences in error reporting between a community pharmacy and a hospital pharmacy during my placement. First, while delegated authorities are charged with the responsibility of overseeing medication errors in the hospital, the board of directors is directly involved in error reporting process in the community pharmacy (Brunsveld-Reinders, Arbous, Vos, and Jonge, 2016).

Second, community pharmacy mainly relies on voluntary reporting while hospital pharmacy utilizes voluntary, confidential, non-confidential, and mandatory reporting processes. Voluntary reporting process that is mainly used by community pharmacy is not very effective because it leaves some errors unreported. However, mandatory reporting by hospitals ensures maximum error reporting and it helps healthcare practitioners to avoid lawsuit.

In this regard, community pharmacies should use mandatory reporting instead of voluntary reporting in order to improve error reporting (Brunsveld-Reinders et al., 2016).

In conclusion, the most enjoyable parts of my placement were getting to learn the role played by error reporting in clinical governance, and the difference between error reporting process in a community pharmacy and a hospital pharmacy. Through error reporting, hospitals can greatly maximize patient safety and improve their health outcomes.

Unfortunately, effective identification of errors cannot be achieved because some errors go unreported. In order to prevent recurrence of medication errors in future, health care organizations should introduce strict measures of reporting such incidents. However, the least enjoyable part of my placement was retrieving information related to medication errors and error reporting process from employees at the pharmacy.

In order to facilitate easy interaction between the student and the hospital’s workers in future, learners should be allowed to choose facilities which they feel would be comfortable for them to undertake the placement.

Reference List

Brunsveld-Reinders, A. H., Arbous, M. S., Vos, R. V. & Jonge, E. D. (2016). Incident and error reporting systems in intensive care: a systematic review of the literature. International Journal for Quality in Health Care, 28(1), 2-13. https://doi.org/10.1093/intqhc/mzv100

Freedman, D. B. (2006). Involvement of patients in clinical governance. Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine, 44(6): 699-703.

MHRA. (2014). Patient Safety Alert. Retrieved from https://www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/psa-sup-info-med-error.pdf

Polnariev, A. (2016). Using the medication error prioritization system to improve patient safety. Pharmacy and Therapeutics, 41(1): 54-59.

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