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Effectiveness of a 'do not interrupt' vest intervention to reduce medication errors during medication administration:
Sarah Berdot1,2, Aurélie Vilfaillot3, Yvonnick Bezie4
1Pharmacy Department, Hôpital européen Georges-Pompidou, APHP, 20 rue Leblanc, 75015, Paris, France. sarah.berdot@aphp.fr.
BMC Nursing
|August 25, 2021
Summary
A "do not interrupt" vest did not reduce medication administration errors in a randomized study. Further research is needed to explore other interventions for improving medication safety.
Area of Science:
- Nursing Practice
- Patient Safety
- Medication Administration
Background:
- 'Do not interrupt' vests are recommended to reduce medication administration errors.
- No controlled randomized studies have evaluated the impact of these vests.
- This study aimed to assess the vest's effectiveness in reducing errors.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate the impact of wearing a 'do not interrupt' vest on medication administration error rates.
- To analyze error types, clinical impact, and associated risk factors.
- To understand nurses' experiences with the intervention.
Main Methods:
- Multicenter, cluster, controlled, randomized study (March-July 2017) in 29 adult units.
- Direct observation by trained observers to collect data.
- Implementation of 'do not interrupt' vests in the experimental group units.
Main Results:
- Medication administration error rates were 7.09% in the vest group and 6.23% in the control group (p=0.192).
- Risk factors like patient age, nurse experience, workload, and interruptions were not significantly associated with error rates.
- The most common error was wrong dosage-form; most errors had no clinical impact. Interruption rates were lower in the vest group.
Conclusions:
- The 'do not interrupt' vest intervention did not significantly impact medication administration error or interruption rates.
- Further studies are required, considering study limitations and exploring other interventions like nurse training or barcode systems.
Keywords:
Hospital / organization & administration (MeSH)InterruptionsMedication errors/nursing* (MeSH)Medication errors/prevention and control (MeSH)Nursing staffSafety management / organization & administration* (MeSH)VestMore Related Videos
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