title: Medication safety within the perioperative environment.
abstract: With the widespread patient safety movement comes an increased public awareness of the risks inherent within the health care setting. More specifically, the highly publicized medication error cases that hit the media demonstrate the effect mediation errors have on patient safety within the perioperative environment. This awareness, however, has triggered limited research across the continuum of care within this complex environment. A current review of the state of the science related to medication safety within this setting reveals research primarily focused on the anesthesia domain of practice. Although application to the perioperative environment can be extrapolated from this research, there is a notable lack of nursing-initiated research that focuses on improved systems or processes related to medication safety within the perioperative continuum of care. This knowledge gap in the literature presents an excellent opportunity for nursing to grow a research program to improve medication safety within the perioperative environment in support of evidence-based practice.
authors.affiliation: United States Army Nurse Corps, USA.
authors.forename: Linda J
authors.initials: LJ
authors.lastname: Wanzer
authors.forename: Rodney W
authors.initials: RW
authors.lastname: Hicks
mesh_terms: D016907:Adverse Drug Reaction Reporting Systems; D000556:Ambulatory Surgical Procedures / Q000451:nursing / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D015984:Causality; D016208:Databases, Factual; D004358:Drug Therapy / Q000451:nursing* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D019317:Evidence-Based Medicine; D006272:Health Facility Environment / Q000458:organization & administration; D006801:Humans; D008508:Medication Errors / Q000379:methods / Q000451:nursing* / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D015403:Nursing Evaluation Research / Q000458:organization & administration*; D009871:Operating Room Nursing / Q000458:organization & administration*; D010043:Outcome and Process Assessment, Health Care / Q000458:organization & administration; D019990:Perioperative Care / Q000451:nursing / Q000458:organization & administration; D016528:Postanesthesia Nursing / Q000458:organization & administration; D012307:Risk Factors; D040242:Risk Reduction Behavior; D017751:Safety Management / Q000458:organization & administration*; D013597:Systems Analysis; D017749:Total Quality Management / Q000458:organization & administration; D014481:United States