Introduction
Quality and safety education for nurses is an important aspect of the learning process. It is important to learn QSEN competencies in order to ensure the safety of nurses and patients. QSEN enables nurses to provide quality health care service to patients. QSEN enables the prevention of accidents in the workplace. It is imperative to apply QSEN to understand the limitations of safety-enhancing technologies.
Importance of Safety-Enhancing Technology
Safety-enhancing technology includes the use of bar code medication administration; computer provider order entry; electronic handover tools; patient monitors and alarms; and ventilator and anesthesia machines (Galliers, Wilson, Randell, & Woodward, 2011). Safety-enhancing technology lowers the probability of risk as it reduces the element of human error. Machines and computers are oblivious to fatigue. Nurses can program computers to perform repetitive tasks. The repetitive action has no effect on computers. However, repetition increases the risk of fatigue in humans.
Safety-enhancing technology is not only meant to eliminate the repetitive nature of nursing work. Safety-enhancing technology is also meant to increase efficiency and accuracy in the transmission of information. In the health care profession the integrity of the information is a critical component in the delivery of competent care. An error in recording can lead to irreparable harm.
One of the most important aspects of nursing care is the handover stage. It is the transition point in patient care “where one individual or team passes responsibility for, and information about a patient to another” (Galliers et al., 2011, p. 501). According to one commentary, “These transitions cross boundaries of space and time” (Galliers et al., 2011, p. 502). The patient progresses from the care of one team to another. At the same time, healthcare professionals change shift and this requires the transmission of information from one group to the next. Two of the most popular mobile devices used in the handover of patient information are the iBleep and the MedicMate (Galliers et al., 2011).
Improving the Use of Safety-Enhancing Technology
The rationale for using medical devices and safety-enhancing technology is to reduce the risk of human error. However, researchers discovered that it is impossible to eliminate the human element in nursing care. For example, the handover of information has been found to be the starting point of communication problems. Upon close examination, researchers discovered that nurses use symbols to simplify the communication process. However, the standardization of symbols and notations was lacking in the healthcare profession. For example, different symbols were used to express the same concept (Galliers et al., 2011). This type of communication problems resulted in poor transitions (Galliers et al., 2011). According to one commentary, several cases of poor handover “have been implicated in incidents of patient harm, poor outcomes, and ineffective work practices” (Galliers et al., 2011, p. 500). It imperative that nurses and healthcare professionals must be aware of the potential ambiguities in using symbols and notations (Galliers et al., 2011). Furthermore, nurses and healthcare professionals must develop a list of recommended symbols. They must promote the standardized symbols. The proponent of this study personally witnessed the problems that occurred as the result of poor handover of patient information.
Training Nurses and Improving Equipment Design
Safety-enhancing technology are usually limited to providing information, alerting nurses on critical activities, provides warning signs, and reminding health care workers about urgent tasks. But when it comes to administering medicines, encoding information on mobile devices, and pressing the increment button, a nurse has to do these things. Robots are not yet a part of present day health care facilities.
It is the human element in the utilization of safety-enhancing technology that is oftentimes the root cause of error. For example, a bar code medication administration alerts the nursing staff to split the tablet in order to administer the correct dosage. However, there are cases wherein the nurse on duty forgets to split the tablet before administering the same to the patient (Mattox, 2012). Another good example is the error in using electronic alarm systems. In one case, the nurse attempting to silence the alarm system erroneously pressed the increment button that changes the infusion rate of the delivery of drugs into the body (Mattox, 2012). Nurses must undergo training in order to learn the correct application of safety-enhancing technology. Furthermore, nurses must study the potential problems inherent in safety-enhancing devices.
Conclusion
It is important to apply safety-enhancing technology in order to reduce the probability of human error. Computers and medical devices are oblivious to fatigue. However, researchers discovered that it is impossible to remove the human element in nursing care. Safety-enhancing technology can only go as far as improving the flow of communication. However, human activity is still needed when it comes to encoding information and the performance of certain tasks. In the case of encoding information, nurses utilized symbols and notations that have never been standardized. As a result human error is introduced in the handover of patient information from one group to the next. In order to solve this problem, health care professionals must standardize the meaning of the symbols that are utilized within the nursing profession. It is also important to train nurses not only on how to use safety-enhancing technology, but also the inherent problems associated with a particular technology or device.
References
Gallier, J., Wilson, S., Randell, R., & Woodward, P. (2011). Safe use of symbols in handover documentation for medical teams. Behavior & Information Technology, 30(4), 499-506.
Mattox, E. (2012). Medical devices and patient safety. Critical Care Nurse, 32(4), 60-68.