New graduates' medication rounds: an improvement in practice

The authors know of two recent deaths related to medicine (or drug) errors. New graduates of nursing administer medicines as a large part of their role, and medicine administration error is well documented. A plan was developed to address these errors in one acute care setting; this included a review of the literature, analysis of reported error, a focus group, a new graduate survey and evaluation. Three supervised medicine rounds, a practice oral medicine assessment and checking of graduates' charts was implemented. Comparison data (2007 and 2008) revealed a decrease in the number of medicine errors. Future graduates will be included in all phases of this evolving practice development, which has increased the effectiveness of patient care by decreasing potential harm.