Abstract
A substantial proportion of nurses' work consists of medication related tasks undertaken in a current environment of high medication error rates. Electronic medication management systems (EMMS) are anticipated to address many of the factors which contribute to errors. These factors, for example illegible hand-written drug orders, reputedly require nurses to spend additional time in clarification and discussion. We report an observational modified time and motion study of 44 registered nurses (215 hours of observation) in a major academic hospital to quantify the time nurses spend in medication related tasks prior to EMMS introduction. On average nurses spent seven minutes in an 8.75 hour shift clarifying or discussing medication issues. The majority of this time (5.4mins) was spent talking with other nurses. Only 1.6 minutes was spent clarifying or discussing medication with doctors. Our results call into question some of the predicted efficiency benefits to nurses' work following EMMS introduction.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | Information Technology in Health Care 2007 - Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Information Technology in Health Care: Socio-Technical Approaches |
| Editors | Johanna I. Westbrook |
| Place of Publication | Amsterdam ; Oxford |
| Publisher | IOS Press |
| Pages | 157-167 |
| Number of pages | 11 |
| Volume | 130 |
| ISBN (Print) | 9781586037772 |
| Publication status | Published - 2007 |
| Externally published | Yes |
| Event | 3rd International Conference on Information Technology in Health Care: Socio-Technical Approaches, ITHC 2007 - Sydney, NSW, Australia Duration: 28 Aug 2007 → 30 Aug 2007 |
Other
| Other | 3rd International Conference on Information Technology in Health Care: Socio-Technical Approaches, ITHC 2007 |
|---|---|
| Country/Territory | Australia |
| City | Sydney, NSW |
| Period | 28/08/07 → 30/08/07 |