Simulated medication administration for vulnerable populations using scanning technology: a quasi-experimental pilot...

Area of Science:

• Nursing Education
• Patient Safety
• Health Informatics

Background:

• Medication errors are a significant risk in healthcare, often exacerbated by time pressures and resource limitations.
• Nursing students' training environments shape their perceptions of medication error reporting and response.
• Current simulation practices often lack real-world elements like medication scanning technology.

Purpose of the Study:

• To pilot and evaluate the impact of Quick Response (QR) code scanning on medication errors during nursing simulations.
• To compare QR code scanning to traditional manual medication administration in simulated environments.
• To assess nursing students' perceptions of the QR code scanning intervention.

Main Methods:

• A quasi-experimental, observational study involving 166 pre-licensure undergraduate nursing students across pediatric and obstetric courses.
• Intervention group utilized QR code scanning during medication administration; control group used standard manual methods.
• Medication errors were quantified by type and patient risk; student perceptions were gathered via Qualtrics survey.

Main Results:

• No statistically significant difference in medication error rates, types, or patient risk was observed between QR scanning and manual administration groups.
• Over half of the participating groups committed at least one medication error, with one-third making high-risk errors.
• A majority of students felt QR scanning better mimicked clinical settings, and half believed it improved their safety practices.

Conclusions:

• The pilot study suggests that QR code scanning, while perceived positively by students, did not increase medication errors in this simulation context.
• Future research will incorporate embedded medication errors, time management challenges, and multi-site implementation to build on these findings.