The writer’s practicum experience was at Good Samaritan Hospital, Catholic health System. These writers’ journals for nursing informatics reflected on the experiences as related in practicum. The nursing informatics role is an important role in healthcare settings because they collaborate with technology and relates to the nursing practice. According to Brokel (2007), “the role of the nurse informatics specialist is to support the scope and practice of all nurses in a variety of specialties. The technologies should be developed to guide nurses to assess human responses, health status, and the injuries and disease conditions leading to a request for health care services by using standardized electronic forms, care sets, clinical decision support …show more content…
The Goal was to explain and interpret the workflow of the bar coding and BCMA system at Good Samaritan hospital. I discovered an issue at the practicum site, which were bar code medication administration errors. I reviewed the BCMA system for the hospital. Bar-coded medication administration systems are implemented to reduce medication administration errors. I also had an opportunity to shadow and observe a staff nurse for the workflow of medication administration. The nurse brings the WOW into the room, scans the patient’s barcode, and then scans the medication; the medications are displayed on the screen. If the medications are scanned and it is the wrong patient, there is a red alert that is displayed on the screen for safety. Workflow issues often arise in technology and computers. BCMA technology has been shown to improve quality of care by increasing access to information and increasing compliance with best practice. There are some inconveniences at times such as, access a patients’ wrist for the barcode strip have led to workflow workarounds. The biggest problem is, pharmacy does not verify the medications on time; this can cause many problems for workflow of medication administration. At times the pharmacy does not deliver the medications on …show more content…
An objective is to aappraise the impact information systems have on privacy, confidentiality, and security of client records. Research and review of the hospitals information systems has privacy, confidentiality, and security of client records. Personal communication from preceptor Barbara Ragione on April 6, 2015, there are several measures doctors and hospitals should take to secure EMR and be compliant with HIPPA. One of the most effective is data encryption. Encryption technology protects EMRs while they are being transferred and ensures that only the intended recipients are able to view them. The hospital providers are required to have firewalls on their computer networks. Firewalls are a strong first line of defense for medical records security by blocking unwanted access to the computer networks used by EMR
For my research paper, I will be discussing the impact of medication errors on vulnerable populations, specifically the elderly. Technology offers ways to reduce medication errors using electronic bar-coding medication administration (BCMA) systems. However, skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) are not using these systems. Medication is still administered with a paper or electronic medication administration record (eMAR), without barcode scanning. In contrast, every hospital I have been in: as a patient, nursing student, and nurse uses BCMA systems. The healthcare system is neglecting the elderly. Nursing homes should use BCMAs to reduce the incidents of medication errors.
Hebda, T. & Czar, P. (2013). Handbook of Informatics for Nurses & Healthcare Professionals. (5th Edition). Upper Saddle River. : N.J: Pearson Education
This technology assist the nurse in confirming patients identify by confirming the patients’ dose, time and form of medication (Helmons, Wargel, & Daniels, 2009). Having an EHR also comes with a program that allows the medical staff to scan medications so medication errors can be prevented. According to Helmons, Wargel, and Daniels (2009) they conducted an observational study in two medical –surgical units one in the medical intensive care (ICU) and one in the surgical ICU. The researchers watched 386 nurses within the two hospitals use bar code scanning before they administrated patients’ medications. The results of the research found a 58 % decrease in medication errors between the two hospitals because of the EHR containing a bar code assisted medication administration
Lund, N., & Kass, L.R. (2013). Medication error reduction and the use of PDA technology
Some method such as audits, chart reviews, computer monitoring, incident report, bar codes and direct patient observation can improve and decrease medication errors. Regular audits can help patient’s care and reeducate nurses in the work field to new practices. Also reporting of medication errors can help with data comparison and is a learning experience for everyone. Other avenues that has been implemented are computerized physician order entry systems or electronic prescribing (a process of electronic entry of a doctor’s instructions for the treatment of patients under his/her care which communicates these orders over a computer network to other staff or departments) responsible for fulfilling the order, and ward pharmacists can be more diligence on the prescription stage of the medication pathway. A random survey was done in hospital pharmacies on medication error documentation and actions taken against pharmacists involved. A total of 500 hospital were selected in the United States. Data collected on the number of medication error reported, what types of errors were documented and the hospital demographics. The response rate was a total of 28%. Practically, all of the hospitals had policies and procedures in place for reporting medication errors.
Implementing technology in a clinical setting is not easy and cannot be successful without a well-organized system. It is important that healthcare providers understand the electronic medication administration record (eMAR) and its role in improving patient safety. One of the most significant aspects of healthcare is the safety of our patients. Medication errors account for 44,000-98,000 deaths per year, more deaths than those caused by highway accidents or breast cancer. Several health information technologies help to reduce the number of medication errors that occur. Once of these technologies is bar-code-assisted medication administration (BCMA). These systems are designed to ensure that the right drug is being administered via the right
The Medication Administration Accuracy Project is a quality improvement project, whose purpose is to improve the accuracy of nursing medication administration. The study used for this project was to find where the most common “wrong doings” happened in the medication process and how to get rid of it. After a year of this project the medication error percent went from 4.3% in 2010 to 1.2% in 2011. The Bar Code Administration System implementation had been very successful with a 95% success rate every year that it is done. The study provided important insight on reducing the medication errors in children. Some were: making sure there are no distractions as possible, double checking medications and making sure the dose in adequate range for the child, and making sure you have two ways of identification with the bar code scanning (Hardmeier, A., Tsourounis, C., Moore, M., Abbott, W., Guglielmo, J.
Working as a professional registered nurse in the hospital, I realized how nurses struggle to find balance between devoting the time charting on the computer and spending time taking care of the patients. Moreover, I’ve seen nurses where they get discouraged trying to find this balance between patients and charting. As a bedside nurse, I would love nothing, but to tend to the needs of my patients. The length of time consume on electronic charting all day, take the very essence of bedside nursing away from nurses, which is caring. Reducing the time of nurses being occupied on charting by eliminating redundant tasks while conforming to their standard, are the changes I would like to make. These are a few of the reasons why I wanted to pursue a degree in informatics. I would advocate for nurses everywhere and to become an instrument in providing them a better electronic health system to work on. Pursuing the degree in nursing informatics will benefit me in
The Security Rule of the HIPAA law affects technology the most in a Healthcare or Human Service organization. The Security Rule deals specifically with Electronic Protected Health Information (EPHI). The EPHI has three types of security safeguards that are mandatory to meet compliance with HIPAA regulations. Administrative, physical, and technical. There is constant concern of different kinds of devices and tools because of their vulnerability: laptops; personal computers of the home; library and public workstations; USB Flash Drives and email, to name a few. These items are easily accessible for those attempting to breach security. Workers of the healthcare area have complet...
According to the author, nursing practice needs to stay current with technological advances while keeping its identity as a patient focused profession. Nurses use technology to improve care from a patient?s perspective, both in quality of care and cost. At the same time, nurses must learn to balance technological knowledge with personal skills, thus providing optimum clinical care while maintaining a person-focused relationship with the patient.
I am truly amazed by the positive impact of bar-code medication administration (BCMA). Since we have a fully integrated electronic health record, it is a true closed loop-system, with medication order entry, pharmacy validation of medications, and clinical decision support. Implementing technology such as BCMA is an efficient way to improve positive identification of both the patient and medication prior to administration. It is estimated that the bar-code medication charting can reduce medication errors by 58% (Jones & Treiber, 2010). Even though we have good adoption of BCMA, nurses still make drug administration errors. In many of the cases, errors are caused by nurses, because they do not validate and verify. The integration of technology
...ide will validate the correct medication, dose, time route and patient during the medication process (Seibert, Maddox, Flynn, & Williams 2014). With any new technology there could be a few issues or problems associated with a learning curve. One is being work-arounds of the system that staff may exercise which cause lead to different or increase of errors. Ignoring overrides warnings as they displayed to the user could create issues as well. Medication errors are still likely to happen during the medication process however barcode technology can help reduce the frequency by providing a safety net within the process. The main goal for the nurse during medication administration is that the patient receives the correct medications with no adverse reaction and barcode technology can assist preventing errors during the process (Seibert, Maddox, Flynn, & Williams 2014).
Information Systems/Technology and patient care technology for the improvement and transformation of health care is an important part of the DNP. Technology has transformed every aspect of human life in positive ways. Technology brought efficiency and improved healthcare deliverance system. Healthcare technologies enabled practitioners to better understand disease process and how to implement best treatment plan. DNP programs across the country embrace information systems and technology in their nursing curriculum because, it prepares nursing students to be innovative and deliver best care (AACN, 2006). DNP graduates must have the ability to use technology to analyze and disseminate critical information to find solutions that
Bar-code-assisted medication administration (BCMA) has replaced the traditional paper-based medication administration (PBMA) systems in some health care facilities. The BCMA system’s objective is to verify the five rights of medication administration meaning that “the right patient receives the right dose of the right drug by the right route at the right time (Grissinger).” The process begins with the pharmacy ensuring that all medicines are labeled correctly and that all medicines have appropriate bar codes that identify the name, dose, and form of the medication. Patient...
Nursing Informatics is a nursing field that involves record keeping and focuses on finding ways to improve information management and communications in nursing to improve efficiency, reduce costs and enhance the quality of patient care. This field is primarily administrative but plays a part in patient care and quality of health care. There are other types of nurses, but many people focus on the nurses who perform the medical treatments with the doctors. This is evident in many films, TV shows, and in other popular media outlets. However, many people do not know what nursing informatics is nor pay attention to that side of nursing which involves the documentation of records and other miscellaneous items, use of advances in technology to improve