“Medication errors cause at least one death every day and injure approximately 1.3 million people annually in the United States of America alone. While low- and middle-income countries are estimated to have similar rates of medication-related adverse events to high-income countries, the impact is about twice as much in terms of the number of years of healthy life lost. Many countries lack good data, which will be gathered as part of the initiative. “
Source: WHO
NDDCCN 2023 is here!
NDDCCN is an academic initiative that aims to improve best practices among nurses and reward diligence.
With a grand prize of ₦500,000, this year’s edition is expected to be highly competitive as nursing students from all over the country come together to compete for the grand prize.
The first of its kind, NDDCCN prides itself as the biggest nursing academic competition in the country so far.
In the history of nursing in Nigeria, there hasn’t been any academic initiative that rewards nurses for their diligence in patient safety the way NDDCCN does.
NDDCCN is also a social platform where nurses can connect, network and nurture productive professional relationships.
“The National Drug Dosage Calculation Competition for Nurses (NDDCCN) is an initiative aimed at raising awareness about dosage calculations among nursing students and nurses. The national competition will motivate nurses to see a need to be competent in their calculation skills in order to reduce avoidable errors in dosage calculations during drug administration.”
Ogunlabi David (founder NDDCCN)
Numerous accolades have praised past editions, and the impact has been far-reaching.
The NDDCCN initiative was founded by Ogunlabi David, a critical care nurse and author of “The Nurse, The Math, and The Medication.” A Handbook on Drug Dosage Calculation.
His passion for excellence and safe care delivery spurred him to start the National Drug Dosage Calculation Competition for Nurses. And so far, the competition has impacted the lives and practice of nurses, as more nurses have begun to realise the importance of safe medication administration and patient safety in general.
According to recent research, each year in the United States alone, 7,000 to 9,000 people die due to medication errors.
It’s also reported that more than $40 billion is spent each year looking after patients and clients suffering from medication error-induced injuries and disabilities.
Furthermore, patients and clients and their families experience pain, stress, and discomfort as a result of the outcomes of medication errors.
What about the effect it has on healthcare institutions? Decreased trust in healthcare service delivery and healthcare professionals and reduced patient and client satisfaction overall.
The National Drug Dosage Calculation Competition is primarily targeted at nurses, but it also has a wide-reaching effect.
When you look critically at the “Medication Administration” stages (from prescription to administration and observation), you will find out that though all steps are important, the administration stage seems to be part of the final point and the most important.
It all culminates at the “administration” stage.
If there is a wrong prescription, bad documentation, poor transcribing, or even faulty dispensation, it’s the sole duty of the person administering the medication to stop the mistake from becoming a reality by properly identifying the error, which is almost always the nurse.
Nurses must be well knowledgeable when it comes to medication administration.
They should know everything. I mean absolutely everything about a particular medication that has been prescribed for a patient.
They must know the proper dose, frequency, patient’s medication history [allergies], route of administration, and all other information associated with the medication prescribed for that patient.
And if they discover any discrepancy, they have to call the attention of the person who prescribed that medication, and if the problem is not with the prescriber [which in most cases is the physician], then they should reach out to the person who dispensed it [the pharmacist].
And if the error did not come from the physician or pharmacist, the source of the error must be identified and immediately dealt with.
Or maybe the nurse needs to know why a particular medication was prescribed a certain way; he or she should immediately reach out.
Most of the time, some specialists prescribe certain medications differently, and the nurse needs to know why.
That’s a lot of responsibilities they have on their shoulders.
You have before you the opportunity to participate in one of the biggest nursing academic/clinical competitions in Africa—to show the nursing [and healthcare] community your dedication to excellence and safe/best practices and to get rewarded for it.
This is the first time in the nursing ecosystem in Nigeria and Africa that an initiative like this is being executed on a large scale.
The burden of medication errors on healthcare institutions and the economy at large is so glaring that in the year 2017, the World Health Organisation resolved to reduce the incidence of medication errors by half.
Yet, here we are, more than five years later, and we have not been able to achieve that goal.
If you are ready to show your commitment to patient safety and let the world know that you advocate for safe care, kindly register via this link and join other patient safety champions.
Find out more details on the official website of The Nurse. The Maths & The Medication.
