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CORRECTLY IDENTIFICATION OF PATIENT

Correctly Identification of Patient

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CORRECTLY IDENTIFICATION OF PATIENT
Correctly Identification of Patient

Introduction

Precise identification of a patient in the health sector entails matching patients to the

appropriate interventions per their presenting needs. It is always vital for the healthcare workers

to ensure that they inquire about the patient's identification by allowing them to introduce

themselves with three names and put them on a name tag. According to Riplinger et al., (2020),

the correct patient identification must always include the patient's name, medical record number,

date of birth, In patient number, and gender. Usually, there tend to be cases where patients

present with the same illness; the only solution to preventing medication errors is by ensuring

that the healthcare professionals correctly identify the patient. The purpose of this task is to

reveal a brief literature review regarding the correct identification of the patients as per the books

provided, the relevance of the problem to the entire nursing career, and also a preliminary

conclusion regarding the issue.

Problem identification

Identifying a patient in the healthcare is the sole responsibility of the interdisciplinary

team as the primary goal of any healthcare is to ensure that the care consumers have access to the

utmost and desired care. Whenever the patients are not well identified, patient safety becomes

compromised. They are exposed to potential healthcare problems that may hinder and

significantly deteriorate their health. Error identification or detection will facilitate the discovery

of the problem's root analysis, thereby prompting other healthcare individuals to adopt the

relevant healthcare interventions to curb it before it persists. Patient identification should always

be accomplished before drug administration, blood transfusion, the performance of clinical tests,
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and also medical procedures. Hence, handoffs among the interdisciplinary team should be

reevaluated for quality improvement.

Relevance to Nursing

Patient identification errors have been a norm since time immemorial; despite the

introduction of electronic healthcare records, human errors have resulted in a lack of

interoperability and the absence of accurate patient identification. In nursing, correct

identification of patients is crucial in providing value-based care, care coordination, and

enhancement of patient safety. A study by Lippi et al., (2017), states that error detection results in

significant healthcare issues, more commonly including repetitive tests, unwanted medical

attention, and loss of reputation among the healthcare team. Secondly, safety routines, for

example, using identifiers, have prompted the healthcare personnel to focus their attention and

divert most of their energies to those activities that require more cognitive processing and

judgment. The other relevance of patient identification is that it facilitates the reduction of

duplicate medical records, which in most cases can be expensive to the patient.

Summary of literature

In the first article by De et al. (2021), the authors aim to adopt several interventions to

prevent the recurrence of medication errors, especially those that emanate from wrong patient

identification—some of the implemented interventions included using information technology

strategies to decrease misidentification errors among the patients. From the study, they assumed

that using audit and feedback to enhance accountability and increase awareness may result in a

small but vital decline in the presence of ID band error rates.

The article's primary objective by Dirik et al. (2018) was to investigate the identification

and occurrence of errors that occur from medications in Turkey. The study population involved
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135 nurses employed by the University hospital in Turkey. In the study, the nurses administered

10mg of morphine sulfate instead of 0.1mg. The nurses themselves were in a better position to

identify the error. Still, they were very reluctant to report the issue, which affected the patients'

care.

A recent survey conducted among 772 registered nurses revealed that many nurses

assume that the misidentification of a patient is a minute issue. In contrast, it can compromise a

patient's health when not keenly observed. Patients' health can be compromised if easy questions

regarding their health are not identified; common factors that are linked to misidentification

entail increased patient acuity, nurses' fatigue, and failure to implement the patient identification

policy(Ferguson et al.,2019). Strategies that should be employed to minimize recurring include

patient identification being tied to each procedure, use of wristbands, and having the treatments

identified unambiguously.

It is always mandatory for the multidisciplinary team to engage them in facilitating the

safety of the patients. The article aimed to focus on error causation rather than its recovery. A

sample of 184 nurses determined the existing relationship between the traits of the healthcare

personnel, the organizational factors of the facility, and the decline of medication errors among

the medical-surgical nurses in the hospital (Gaffney et al.,2018). Toward the end, the nurses

came up with a conclusion that creating a safer healthcare system would rely on the capability of

the nurses to utilize their knowledge and skills in identifying the issue at hand.

Approximately 400,000 deaths in the United States occur as a result of medication errors,

transmission of infection, and fall events. Research by Zaitoun et al. (2023), states that safe,

equitable, and top-notch patient care has become the final objective of most healthcare

organizations. The authors say that the nurses can advocate for patient safety and culture
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promotion in the healthcare. They can definitely behave as role models for the others by creating

awareness on the importance of safety to the patient. The measurement of a culture of

protection of a patient is a continuous activity and should always be conducted regularly to

ascertain success and identification of various areas of improvement.

Similarities

The five articles focused on identifying the need for patient identification in the hospital

with significant emphasis on reducing errors in the hospital. The utilization of various patient

identification serves a great purpose in minimizing causing harm to the patient. Most of the

populations discussed in the articles were children and elderly persons, whereby studies like

experimental and quasi-experimental research designs were incorporated. Furthermore, the

articles were screened using their title and abstract; suitable articles were selectively found

relevant to the study. Last similarity is that all the articles I utilized were published between 2016

and 2023 and were all written in English to enhance easy comprehension of information.

Differences

Each article was different in its own manner; in the article by Zaitoun, the Mixed Method

Appraisal Tool was utilized in the evaluation of the quality of the studies, while that of Ferguson

lacked an appraisal tool since its main focus was on the adoption of interventions to be utilized in

decreasing patients' misidentification. Other than that, a descriptive cross-sectional correlational

study was used in a sample of 184 nurses to examine the existing relationship between the nurse

and the recovery of medication errors among the nurses who worked in the medical-surgical unit.

Compared to the article by De et al., (2021), research designs, for instance, observational,

analytical, and descriptive studies, were utilized in the conclusion forming the basis of the

research. Additionally, randomized controlled clinical trials were utilized with the aim of quality
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assessment in the journal by De et al. In that of Zaitoun, only eight pieces used the convenience

sampling method.

Preliminary conclusion

There is sufficient evidence of the solid relationship between the nurse and patients'

safety. Correct identification of the patient in the healthcare can be achieved via numerous ways,

including wristbands, social security numbers, and date of birth. Thus, the interdisciplinary

team's role is to normalize checking patients' identity and match the correct patients with the

accurate care (Gaffney et al.,2016). Extensive research is required to determine a dedicated

competency-based training resource that will necessitate the improvement of patient safety

scores among the diverse majority of persons. To attain this, the nurses should create a culture of

learning and improvement by getting massive support to develop their expertise and knowledge

in providing top-notch patient care. Besides the nurses, the medical physicians and the support

team should familiarize themselves with its importance and how it is carried out.

Summary

In the introduction, much emphasis has been on the importance of correctly identifying

patients during care transition. The relevance of the topic to nursing has been determined and

highlighted briefly, whereby, it serves as an illuminator in detecting root analysis of the problems

in the care continuum. Each article has had a vital concept, with most of them providing

descriptions of the causes of patient misidentification, ways to curb it, and also future

recommendations to adopt. In a nutshell, a positive correlation exists between safety competency

and teamwork dimensions in the healthcare fraternity.

De Rezende, H., Melleiro, M. M., O Marques, P. A., & Barker, T. H. (2021). Interventions to

reduce patient identification errors in the hospital setting: a systematic review. The Open

Nursing Journal, 15(1).https://doi.org/10.2174/1874434602115010109

Dirik, H. F., Samur, M., Seren Intepeler, S., & Hewison, A. (2019). Nurses' identification and

reporting of medication errors. Journal of clinical nursing, 28(5-6), 931-938.

https://doi.org/10.1111/jocn.14716

Ferguson, C., Hickman, L., Macbean, C., & Jackson, D. (2019). The wicked problem of patient

misidentification: How could the technological revolution help address patient

safety. Journal of Clinical Nursing. https://doi.org/10.1111/jocn.14848

Gaffney, T. A., Hatcher, B. J., Milligan, R., & Trickey, A. (2016). Enhancing Patient Safety:

Factors Influencing Medical Error Recovery Among Medical-Surgical Nurses. Online

journal of issues in nursing, 21(3).

https://doi.orghttps://doi.org/10.3912/ojin.vol21no03man06

Lippi, G., Mattiuzzi, C., Bovo, C., & Favaloro, E. J. (2017). Managing the patient identification

crisis in healthcare and laboratory medicine. Clinical biochemistry, 50(10-11), 562-567

Riplinger, L., Piera-Jiménez, J., & Dooling, J. P. (2020). Patient identification techniques–

approaches, implications, and findings. Yearbook of medical informatics, 29(01), 081-

086.

Zaitoun, R. A., Said, N. B., & de Tantillo, L. (2023). Clinical nurse competence and its effect on

patient safety culture: a systematic review. BMC nursing, 22(1), 173.

https://doi.org/10.1186/s12912-023-01305-w
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