title: Nursing care and patient safety: visualizing medication organization, storage and distribution with photographic research methods.
abstract: In this qualitative study, we adapted photographic research methods from earlier nursing research to identify factors related to organization, storage and distribution that could lead to errors in the selection, preparation and administration of medications. The research excerpt presented here was developed in a clinical unit of an urban Brazilian public hospital. The research participants were nurses working at that unit and students from the two final semesters of the Undergraduate Nursing Course. We collected digital photographs of the medication system and subsequently used photo elicitation to review the images with research participants, so as to obtain their perceptions and narratives of working with medications in the unit. We report selected findings here on the organization, storage and distribution of medications, which indicate there is room to improve the safety of the medication system.
authors.affiliation: Secretaria Municipal de Saúde, SC, Brazil.
authors.forename: Anna Carolina
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Raduenz
authors.forename: Priscila
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Hoffmann
authors.forename: Vera
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Radunz
authors.forename: Grace Teresinha Marcon
authors.initials: GT
authors.lastname: Dal Sasso
authors.forename: Isabel Cristina Alves
authors.initials: IC
authors.lastname: Maliska
authors.forename: Patricia Beryl
authors.initials: PB
authors.lastname: Marck
mesh_terms: D004356:Drug Storage / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards*; D006801:Humans; D009729:Nursing / Q000592:standards*; D015399:Nursing Research; D010781:Photography; D017751:Safety Management