Simulation improves calculation - L'Infirmière Magazine n° 293 du 15/01/2012 | Espace Infirmier
 

L'infirmière Magazine n° 293 du 15/01/2012

 

ANGLAIS

« The “five rights” of medication administration require that the right patient be given the right medication in the right dose by the right route at the right time. »(1)

Worryingly, the USA’s Joint Commission notes that « 6 % of all sentinel events from 2004 through 2010 were caused by medication errors »(2) and that « nurses are the health care providers most often implicated in medication errors ».(3)

Anxiety and unfamiliarity with material and techniques may contribute to this situation. Moreover, a high score in classroom calculations doesn’t always mean accuracy in the clinical setting. One possible solution is to integrate medication calculations into training simulations.

The trainee nurse is removed from the traditional classroom and placed in a clinical environment, with access to all the accessories necessary to the manipulation in question. The researcher explains : « If calculating how much medication goes into an IV bag, the vial of medication, the IV bag, and the syringe serve as visual and tactile stimuli. »(1)

Benefits of this approach include a possible reduction in the anxiety experienced by the nurse when faced with solving medication problems ; giving assessors the possibility to assess the nurse’s patient monitoring and critical thinking skills. Improving test results and increasing nurse confidence, especially in cases where a significant lapse of time occurs between learning a skill and employing it.

1. American Journal of Nursing (web : journals.lww.com/ajnonline) October 2011 - Volume 111 - Issue 10 - pp 67-69 - Shanks, Linda Creadon PhD, DNP ; Enlow, Michele Zelko DNP.

2. Joint Commission. Summary data of sentinel events reviewed by the Joint Commission. Oakbrook Terrace, IL ; 2010. Voir www.jointcommission.org.

3. Simons J., « Identifying medication errors in surgical prescription charts », Paediatric Nursing 2010 ; 22 (5) : 20-4.

MOTS ET EXPRESSIONS

Joint Commission

Organisation indépendante qui certifie plus de 19 000 organismes et programmes de santé aux États-Unis.

Sentinel event (n)

Événement critique où un grave dommage est subi par le patient (décès, perte d’un organe, d’un membre…). Voir www.jointcommission.org

Trainee

(adj ou n)

Stagiaire, apprenti, élève

Assessor or trainer (n)

Formateur

Critical (adj) thinking (n)

Analyse critique

QUESTIONS

1. Name the four factors that may contribute to a nurse’s medication error.

Anxiety ; unfamiliarity with material, with techniques ; and inability to perform calculations in a clinical setting.

2. What benefits does simulation offer to the trainer ?

It can assess the trainee’s ability to think critically and to survey the patient’s clinical status.

3. Should the simulation technique be limited to student nurses ? Explain why or why not.

Since (licensed) nurses are implicated in medication errors, all nurses should benefit from a simulation training.

Articles de la même rubrique d'un même numéro