Performance Health Partners
Medication errors claim thousands of lives each year, underscoring the critical importance of medication safety in our healthcare systems. Verification nurses, often the unsung heroes in this field, play a pivotal role in preventing these errors and enhancing both medication and patient safety. Read on to explore the key responsibilities of verification nurses, the benefits they bring to healthcare settings, and specific examples of how their diligent efforts improve medication safety.
How Do Verification Nurses Improve Medication Safety?
Verification nurses are specialized healthcare professionals who focus on confirming all aspects of medication management within a healthcare facility.
Their primary responsibilities include:
Streamlining Medication Reconciliation
Verification nurses play a vital role in medication reconciliation, a process that involves systematically reviewing and updating patients’ medication lists to ensure complete accuracy and continuity of care. Accurate lists help prevent medication errors and promote medication safety by ensuring that all prescribed drugs are necessary and appropriate for the patient’s current condition.
For example, when a patient is discharged from a hospital, a verification nurse will ensure that the new medication regimen aligns with the patient’s ongoing prescriptions to avoid duplications, omissions, or dangerous interactions.
Ensuring Dosage Verification
Verification nurses play an important role in protecting patients during the dispensing and administration stages of medication management.
Their role is especially critical given that, according to the Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy, medication errors harm at least 1.5 million people annually, resulting in costs of approximately $3.5 billion to hospitals.
While about half of these errors occur at the prescribing and ordering stages, verification nurses also focus their efforts on the subsequent phases—ensuring that each medication is correctly dispensed and administered.
In their daily duties, verification nurses conduct detailed reviews of medication dosages and administration instructions for every prescription within the healthcare facility. This meticulous process includes verifying that each medication’s dosage is accurate and that its administration aligns with the current needs and conditions of the patient. Such rigorous checks are vital for preventing medication errors, which not only reduce preventable harm but also significantly improve the overall safety and outcomes of patient care.
Additionally, verification nurses prevent potential overdoses or underdoses by factors such as the patient’s age, weight, renal function, and concurrent medications. Their expertise is particularly crucial in high-risk environments, such as intensive care units or pediatric wards, where precise dosing can significantly impact patient outcomes.
Mitigating Drug Interactions
Drug interactions are a significant health risk, causing an estimated 2.8% of all hospitalizations annually in the United States, which amounts to more than 245,000 hospitalizations and incurs a cost of $1.3 billion each year for healthcare systems.
Given these staggering figures, verification nurses play a crucial role in identifying and managing potential drug interactions to improve medication safety and prevent costly hospital admissions.
Leveraging their extensive pharmaceutical knowledge, verification nurses are often able to anticipate interactions that may not be immediately apparent to other healthcare providers. For example, they are crucial in detecting adverse reactions between commonly prescribed medications, such as when a blood thinner might dangerously interact with a newly prescribed antibiotic, prompting the need for an alternative treatment strategy.
This proactive approach by verification nurses has proven effective, as evidenced by the significant increase in reported drug interaction events—from 744 to 3,036 over five years, according to a literature review by Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. Many of these potential errors were caught even before the pharmacy verified or prepared the drugs, underscoring the critical role verification nurses play in safeguarding patients through their deep understanding of pharmaceuticals.
Educating Patients and Healthcare Providers
Verification nurses also contribute significantly to patient education, ensuring that patients understand their medication regimens completely. This education includes clear instructions on how to take their medications, the importance of adherence, and what side effects to watch for.
By providing this information, verification nurses help patients feel more confident in managing their treatments, which increases compliance with prescribed therapies. Increased compliance is crucial for the effectiveness of treatment plans and can lead to better health outcomes and reduced hospital readmissions.
“[The verification nurses’] work helps to increase patient confidence, in addition to clinical research protocol, integrity, and sponsor confidence,” said Erin McGarry, B.S.N., RN, OCN, LMSW, nurse leader, said to Oncology Nursing News. This educational outreach helps enhance patient compliance with treatment regimens and empowers patients to take an active role in their healthcare.
Supporting Frontline Workers
Another critical benefit of having verification nurses is the support they provide to other healthcare staff, including doctors and pharmacists. By taking on the responsibility of verifying medication orders, these nurses allow physicians to devote more time to patient diagnosis and treatment planning. Verification nurses also conduct training sessions to inform staff about the latest in medication safety standards and best practices.
Pharmacists can also rely on verification nurses to ensure that prescriptions are accurate before dispensing, thereby reducing their workloads, preventing burnout, and ultimately minimizing the chances of dispensing errors.
“[The verification nurse role] has demonstrated… improved efficiency, and decreased workload on pharmacy and infusion staff,” Katie Hambright, B.S.N., RN, OCN told Oncology Nursing News.
This type of collaborative approach not only streamlines workflows but also fosters a more efficient healthcare environment, where each professional can concentrate on their areas of expertise, ultimately leading to improved patient safety.
Final Thoughts
Verification nurses are integral to the healthcare team, significantly contributing to medication safety and patient safety. Their meticulous work in verifying medication orders, educating patients and staff, and preventing medication errors positions them as crucial allies in the quest for safer healthcare outcomes. By recognizing and supporting the role of verification nurses, healthcare facilities can ensure a higher standard of care and safety for all patients.
As we continue to face complex medical treatments and diverse patient needs, the role of verification nurses only grows in importance, making them essential in our ongoing efforts to enhance medication and patient safety across all healthcare environments.