MEDICATION ERRORS ASSOCIATED WITH COMMUNICATION BARRIERS IN HEALTH CARE FOR THE ELDERLY: INTEGRATIVE REVIEW

Abstract

Brazil's population aged 65 and over accounts for approximately 11% of the country's total population. Problems related to medication errors are recurrent, even with the evolution of information technologies and the creation of protocols to mitigate this recurrence. This study aims to investigate the scientific evidence on the relationship between communication and medication errors during care for hospitalized elderly people. An integrative literature review was carried out, with searches in MEDLINE and IBECS via the Virtual Health Library and directly in PubMed, using the inclusion criteria of articles in Portuguese, English and Spanish that addressed the subject and were available in full.  The guiding question was “What is the scientific evidence on medication errors related to miscommunication during care for hospitalized elderly people?”. Eleven articles were included in the synthesis, which confirmed that inappropriate communication is a barrier and a cause of adverse events involving drugs. It was found that a significant number of elderly patients are victims of avoidable errors during their treatment. Errors of prescription, errors of omission, dosage and dispensing were found, so there are challenges in implementing effective communication in the healthcare sector. It is concluded that because the problem leads to damage to the health of those involved, health professionals need to be guided by effective communication in order to maintain patient safety