Which of the following is a suitable action after identifying a medication error?

Reporting a medication error to a supervisor immediately is a critical action for several reasons. First and foremost, it ensures patient safety by allowing the supervisor to take necessary actions to prevent harm and manage any potential consequences stemming from the error. Timely reporting also contributes to the implementation of corrective measures to avoid similar errors in the future.

Furthermore, reporting creates a record of the incident which is essential for quality assurance and clinical governance. This approach not only upholds professional standards but also fosters a culture of openness and learning within the healthcare team, promoting ongoing training and evaluation to improve processes.

In ideal practice, it is important that medication errors are not ignored or concealed, as doing so could lead to further patient harm or complications. Documentation for future reference and discussing the incident solely with coworkers without involving supervisors may fail to address the systemic issues that contributed to the error, and they may not lead to immediate corrective actions that could protect patient safety.