The metric system has become standard in most countries of the world and dominates in many important fields here in the United States especially in the Healthcare field. About 1.5 million preventable "adverse drug events" occur in the United States every year, according to a 2007 study by the Institute of Medicine (Team Metric, 2013). In this discussion question, you will research the connection between measurement conversions and medication errors.
Situation: A toddler is taken to the emergency room (ER) and the triage nurse tells the parent that the child's weight is 25 pounds. When the nurse enters the data into the computer, she is supposed to convert the weight to kilograms. Twenty-five pounds is about 11.3 kilograms. However, when the triage nurse enters "25" into the computer system, the system assumes it is kilograms and the toddler is now charted at weighing 25 kilograms. Sample error pulled from Team Metric 2013.
Question: Using the UMA Virtual Library, research medication errors in children in the U.S. Discuss your findings and how often conversion errors are to blame. Be sure to cite your references in your responses.
For this discussion, you will use the UMA Virtual Library, as well as the Internet or a community library to answer the questions. Be sure to properly cite your resources