The effect of a safe zone on nurse interruptions, distractions, and medication administration errors.
Patient safety is a health care priority. Yet medical errors are ranked the eighth leading cause of death. Medication administration errors (MAEs) often result from multiple environmental and individual factors. This quality improvement initiative adapted a protocol based on airline industry safety measures to decrease nurse distractions and interruptions during medication administration, with the goal of decreasing MAEs. Sources of distractions, interruptions, and MAEs were measured pre and post intervention. Patient satisfaction scores were measured concurrently. Results of this initiative differ from previous studies in which similar interventions reduced both distractions and MAEs. An unexpected finding was dramatically increased patient satisfaction.
School of Health Sciences, University of Saint Francis, Fort Wayne, Indiana (Dr Yoder); College of Nursing, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Milwaukee, Wisconsin (Dr Schadewald); and Office of Institutional Research and Effectiveness, University of Saint Francis, Fort Wayne, Indiana (Ms Dietrich). Mindy Yoder, DNP, RN, FNP-BC, is associate professor and dean of the School of Health Sciences at the University of Saint Francis in Fort Wayne, Indiana. She has been a family nurse practitioner for 18 years. Diane Schadewald, DNP, RN, FNP-BC, WHNP-BC, is a clinical associate professor and the family nurse practitioner coordinator at the College of Nursing of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Previously, she was the project advisor for Dr Yoder at the University of Minnesota School of Nursing. Kim Dietrich, MA, is a research and assessment analyst in the Office of Institutional Research and Effectiveness at the University of Saint Francis, Fort Wayne, Indiana. She conducts institutional research, specializing in university assessments and statistics.
Mindy
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D006801:Humans; D008508:Medication Errors / Q000517:prevention & control*; D009736:Nursing Process; D061214:Patient Safety; D017060:Patient Satisfaction