An integrated nursing-pharmacy approach to a computerized medication dispensing/administration system

This paper describes the collaborative efforts of the nursing and pharmacy departments to develop a nurse-generated/pharmacist-verified computerized medication administration record (MAR). The objectives were to improve accuracy in dispensing and administering medications and a avoid duplicate labor efforts created by separate records to dispense and to administer the medications. These efforts provided the nurses with an accurate record to administer the medication and the physicians with an informative record with which to review their patient's drug therapy.