title: Medication error reduction and the use of PDA technology.
abstract: The purpose of this study was to determine whether nursing medication errors could be reduced and nursing care provided more efficiently using personal digital assistant (PDA) technology. The sample for this study consisted of junior and senior undergraduate baccalaureate nursing students. By self-selection of owning a PDA or not, students were placed in the PDA (experimental) group or the textbook (control) group, provided with a case study to read, and asked to answer six questions (i.e., three medication administration calculations and three clinical decisions based on medication administration). The analysis of collected data, calculated using a t test, revealed that the PDA group answered the six questions with greater accuracy and speed than did the textbook group.
authors.affiliation: Adelphi University, School of Nursing, Garden City, New York 11530-0701, USA. Greenfi2@adelphi.edu
authors.forename: Sue
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Greenfield
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002983:Clinical Competence / Q000592:standards*; D016303:Clinical Pharmacy Information Systems; D003197:Computer Literacy; D034201:Computers, Handheld / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D004346:Drug Information Services; D004360:Drug Therapy, Computer-Assisted; D004508:Education, Nursing, Baccalaureate / Q000458:organization & administration*; D017598:Efficiency, Organizational; D005260:Female; D006301:Health Services Needs and Demand; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008508:Medication Errors / Q000451:nursing / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008875:Middle Aged; D009519:New York City; D009732:Nursing Care / Q000458:organization & administration; D015402:Nursing Education Research; D015403:Nursing Evaluation Research; D048108:Nursing Informatics / Q000193:education / Q000458:organization & administration; D017751:Safety Management; D013338:Students, Nursing / Q000523:psychology