| PICOT Question | ||
| P | Population | Critically ill patients |
| I | Intervention | Integration of health information technology in the medication administration process |
| C | Comparison | Use of conventional medication management process |
| O | Outcome | Reduction of medication errors |
| T | Timeframe | Duration of hospital stay |
| PICOT | Among the critically ill patients (P), does the integration of health information technology (I) compared to conventional methods in medication administration process (C), reduce medication error (O) during hospital stay (T)? | |
| Problem Statement | Medication errors remain a critical health challenge which impacts not just the nursing staff but also patients under their care. Medication errors sometimes do not cause harm. However, in most instances, they can be devastating to the nurses and harmful to patients. Nurses play a critical roel in protection of patients against mistakes and errors in the medication administration as they are exclusively responsible for administration, dispensation and monitoring of medications to patients (Trimble et al., 2017). While the healthcare struggles with increased nurse shortage due to high turnover, providers can leverage health information technology to reduce these adverse events and enhance protection of patients under their care. In their study, Alotaibi et al. (2017) assert that health information technology (HIT) offers numerous chances for enhancing and transforming healthcafe that include reduction of human errors, facilitating effective coordination and improving practice efficiencies. Therefore, through levarging on health information technologies like barcode scanning, electronic medication administration record (eMAR) and patient data management systems, electronic incident reporting and E-prescribing among other interventions, health organizations and providers can reduce medication errors and enhance patient safety despite having nurse staffing shortage. The implication is that these technologies reduce the possibility of errors that are mainly human mistakes by providers during the medication administration process. | |
References
Alotaibi, Y. K. & Federico, F. (2017). The impact of health information technology on patient safety. Saudi
Medical Journal, 38(12):1173-1180. doi: 10.15537/smj.2017.12.20631
Buerhaus, P., Skinner, L., Aurhach, D. & Staiger, D. (2017). Four challenges facing the nursing workforce in
the United States. Journal of Nursing Regulation, 8(2), 40-46. DOI:10.1016/S2155-8256(17)30097-2
Trimble, A. N., Bishop, B., & Rampe, N. (2017). Medication errors associated with transition from insulin pens
to insulin vials. American Journal of Health-System Pharmacy, 74(2), 70-75. doi:10.2146/ajhp150726
Part 1:
Nurses are professionally and ethically mandated to promote safe workplaces for optimal patient care. In the current nursing practice, nursing professionals achieve this objective by addressing nursing problems through evidence-based interventions. Nursing burnout is widespread in clinical care, considering that approximately 35%-45% of nurses are burned out in the United States (Schlak et al., 2021). The problem is multifaceted and stems from multiple factors, including a high workload, high job turnover rates, inadequate sleep, and stressful work environments. Research shows that the rate of nurse burnout increases proportionately with an increase in nurses’ psychological stress (Al Sabei et al., 2022). To underline the significance of nurse burnout as a practice problem, it is crucial to explore its profound impacts. The article by Schlak et al. (2021) demonstrates the importance of addressing nurse burnout by underlining that the risk of patient adverse events and patient mortality is about 8% when being attended to by nurses experiencing burnout. Length of stay is also high in environments with a high prevalence of nurse burnout. As a result, evidence-based interventions for reduc
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