Creating a culture and environment of safety when preparing and administering medications is essential in preventing errors and ensuring patient safety. This should encompass both the physical space of the pharmacy as well as the practices carried out by staff members. It should also involve incorporating checks and balances which allow for verification at each step in the medication process (Institute for Safe Medication Practices, 2020).
First, it is important to ensure that all medication preparation areas are adequately stocked with necessary equipment such as needles, syringes, IV sets, sharps containers etc. All equipment should be inspected regularly for any defects or signs of wear-and-tear to reduce potential contamination or mislabeling risks. The area itself must also maintain appropriate lighting levels as well as organization among storage shelves so that medications can be easily identified.
Staff members should practice effective communication techniques when preparing or administering medications; this includes double checking labels on all components before mixing them together or administering them to patients. They should always read prescriptions carefully and check patient identifiers (name, date of birth) multiple times throughout the process. Additionally they should review other vital information such as drug allergies or current conditions which may influence how certain drugs interact within a person’s body
Finally, there should be systems put in place to detect any potential errors prior to finalizing orders or dispensing medications. This could include having pharmacists sign off on all prescription orders before they are filled out as well using computerized order entry programs which flag potential drug interactions before they occur (Institute for Safe Medication Practices, 2020). Such precautions help create an environment where mistakes can caught quickly rectified without compromising patient care.
that can go back many years and may even result in personal identity loss (Serra, Fadda, Buccione, Caltagirone, and Carlesimo, 2007). In this it is quite easy to see that psychogenic amnesia seems to produce a widespread of cognitive deficits unlike organic amnesia which is typically restricted to memory function (Kumar, Rao, Sunny, and Gangadhar, 2007). Amnesia with an organic onset, on the other hand, does show signs of cerebral sufferance, meaning that there is clear physical evidence that shows that the condition can be linked to damage of the cortical areas of the brain (Serra, Fadda, Buccione, Caltagirone, and Carlesimo, 2007). Even though many cases of amnesia can be quite debilitating, it is not to say that people cannot overcome their condition and lead a successful life like Angie, a 50-year-old woman with profound anterograde amnesia (Duff, Wszalek, Tranel, and Cohen, 2008). Whereas, it could have a completely opposite effect in which the person suffering from some sort of amnesia could be lead to a life of crime and violence, like depicted in the movie Memento.
Adding on to the last point, there is one article that points to the fact that psychogenic and organic amnesia can be compared on 4 different levels. These levels include clinical, neuroradiological, neuropsychological and psychopathological features (Serra, Fadda, Buccione, Caltagirone, and Carlesimo, 2007). When taking a look at the clinical aspect it can be seen that in organic amnesia the memory disorder seems to preserve personal identity, basic semantic knowledge and procedural skills, while psychogenic amnesia includes the loss of personal identity and very basic semantic and procedural abilities (Serra, Fadda, Buccione, Caltagirone, and Carlesimo, 2007). In the neuroradiological sense, organic amnesia seems to have a physical cause that is consistent with cerebral damage affecting cortical and/or subcortical areas known to be important in memory, while in psychogenic amnesia damage to the cerebral areas important in memory does not have a clinical or neuroradiological basis (Serra, Fadda, Buccione, Caltagirone, and Carlesimo, 2007). Looking at the neuropsychological aspect it is easy to see that in organic amnesia there is documented impairment in declarative episodic memory with preservation of other memory functions and general intelligence, while in psychogenic amnesia declarative episodic memory is affected along with general intellectual dysfunction (Serra, Fadda, Buccione, Caltagirone, and Carlesimo, 2007). In the psychopathological sense, organic amnesia shows no predisposing psychiatric conditions before the onset of the condition, while in psychogenic amnesia a psychopathological condition is existent before the onset of the condition (Serra, Fadda, Buccione, Caltagirone, and Carlesimo, 2007). Although psychogenic and organic amnesia are on
