A combined intervention to reduce interruptions during medication preparation and double-checking: a pilot-study...

The aim was to evaluate the impact of staff training and wearing safety vests as a combined intervention on interruptions during medication preparation and double-checking.

Interruptions and errors during the medication process are common and an important issue for patient safety in the hospital setting.

We performed a pre- and post-intervention pilot-study using direct structured observation of 26 nurses preparing and double-checking 431 medication doses (225 pre-intervention and 206 post-intervention) for 36 patients (21 pre-intervention and 15 post-intervention).

With staff training and the introduction of safety vests, the interruption rate during medication preparation was reduced from 36.8 to 28.3 interruptions per hour and during double-checking from 27.5 to 15 interruptions per hour.

This pilot-study showed that the frequency of interruptions decreased during the critical tasks of medication preparation and double-checking after the introduction of staff training and wearing safety vests as part of a quality improvement process.

Nursing management should acknowledge interruptions as an important factor potentially influencing medication safety. Unnecessary interruptions can be successfully reduced by considering human and system factors and increasing both staff and nursing managers' awareness of 'interruptive communication practices' and implementing physical barriers. This is the first pilot-study specifically evaluating the impact of staff training and wearing safety vests on the reduction of interruptions during medication preparation and double-checking.