II. Glossary
American Nurses Association (ANA): The professional organization that represents the interests of the nation’s four million registered nurses.
Beneficence: To “do good.”
Boxed Warnings: The strongest warnings issued by the Federal Drug Association (FDA) that signify a drug carries a significant risk of serious or life-threatening adverse effects.
Code of Ethics for Nurses: Developed by the American Nurses Association as a guide for carrying out nursing responsibilities in a manner consistent with quality in nursing care and the ethical obligations of the profession.
Cultural competence: The process by which nurses demonstrate culturally congruent practice.
Cultural humility: A humble and respectful attitude toward individuals of other cultures that pushes one to challenge their own cultural biases, realize they can’t possibly know everything about other cultures, and approach learning about other cultures as a lifelong goal and process.[1]
Culturally congruent practice: The application of evidence-based nursing that is in agreement with the preferred cultural values, beliefs, worldview, and practices of the health care consumer and other stakeholders.
Do Not Crush list: A list of medications that should not be crushed, often due to a sustained-release formulation.
Drug diversion: The transfer of any legally prescribed controlled substance from the individual for whom it was prescribed to another person for any illicit use.
Error-prone abbreviations: Abbreviations, symbols, and dose designations that are frequently misinterpreted and involved in harmful medication errors.
Five rights of medication administration: Standards of practice that require the following information is confirmed prior to each administration of medication: right patient, right drug, right dose, right time, and right route.
Health literacy: The degree to which individuals have the capacity to obtain, process, and understand basic health information needed to make appropriate health decisions.
High-risk medications: Drugs that bear a heightened risk of causing significant client harm when they are used in error.
Inappropriate polypharmacy: Present when one or more medicines are prescribed that are not or no longer needed.
Look-alike and sound-alike (LASA) drugs: Medications that require special safeguards to reduce the risk of errors and minimize harm.
Maleficence: Causing harm to patients.
National Patient Safety Goals (NPSGs): Goals established by The Joint Commission to help accredited organizations address specific areas of concern related to patient safety.
Nursing: The protection, promotion, and optimization of health and abilities, prevention of illness and injury, facilitation of healing, alleviation of suffering through the diagnosis and treatment of human response, and advocacy in the care of individuals, families, groups, communities, and populations, as defined by the American Nurses Association.
Nursing process: Standards of Practice that include Asse