PICOT Question
In hospital settings, among healthcare professionals, does the implementation of barcode scanning technology (compared to manual medication administration) reduce medication errors in terms of frequency and severity?
Clinical Issue of Interest
Medication errors in healthcare settings have become common place and warrant for intervention to curb them. This selected healthcare issue poses significant risks to patient safety and in some cases leads to outcomes such as prolonged hospital stays and increased healthcare costs. With this in mind, the implementation of effective strategies is required so as to guarantee and uphold medication safety on the one hand and optimize patient care quality on the other (Smith-Love, 2022). Approaches have over the years been developed such as the use of technology like barcode scanning systems and electronic medication administration records. The purpose of these has been aimed are aimed at curbing medication errors. While this is promising, there still needs further investigation to help evaluate the effectiveness of these strategies. Ciampi et al. (2022) have insisted on the need for rigorous and focused research to understand the impact that these interventions have. Arguably, identifying and implementing successful strategies would enable providers to safeguard the interests of patients specifically providing them with quality care and alleviating their health Analysis Of Sickle Cell Disease And Pain Management Discussion.
Search Results
My search for resources relevant for this study started with the use of specified keywords “medication errors in hospital settings” which produced a total of 286 articles on original research. I then refined this search by incorporating Boolean operators to search for “medication errors AND strategies,” leading to a decline in the search count to 193 articles. I went further ahead to refine the search even further to the search phrase “medication errors AND strategies AND implementation,” which resulted in 91 articles. Notably, the choice of including “medication errors AND strategies AND implementation AND effectiveness” narrowed the search down to 68 articles. Finally, refining this further to “medication errors AND strategies AND implementation AND effectiveness AND hospital settings,” only 43 articles on original research. Reflecting on this, the use of Boolean operators facilitated the search refinement process, ultimately reducing the number of articles and ensuring enhanced relevance to the subject of interest. Remarkably, the progressive addition of the various search terms created a more focused and specific search outcome which gradually streamlined the retrieval of research articles directly pertaining to the research question Analysis Of Sickle Cell Disease And Pain Management Discussion.
Increasing the Effectiveness of a Database Search
The rigor and effectiveness of a database search on the PICOT question could be improved by employing several strategies. One, pertinent keywords and controlled vocabulary terms could be combined to help develop a comprehensive search (Mulac et al., 2021). The use of terms such as “barcode scanning,” “medication errors,” and “hospital settings,” for example and adding related synonyms like “medication administration” or “patient safety” would go a long way in increasing the effectiveness of the search (Svensk & McIntyre, 2021)Analysis Of Sickle Cell Disease And Pain Management Discussion. Two, using Boolean operators as demonstrated in the section above aided in refining the search. Combining “barcode scanning” AND “medication errors” for examples would yield precise results. Three, truncation and wildcard symbols would leverage the search by accounting for variations in search terms. Last, search filters such as publication date, study design, or language would further narrow down the results to arguably the most relevant articles.
References
Ciampi, M., Coronato, A., Naeem, M., & Silvestri, S. (2022). An intelligent environment for preventing medication errors in-home treatment. Expert Systems with Applications, 193, 116434. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eswa.2021.116434Links to an external site.
Mulac, A., Mathiesen, L., Taxis, K., & Granås, A. G. (2021). Barcode medication administration technology used in hospital practice: a mixed-methods observational study of policy deviations. BMJ Quality & Safety, 30(12), 1021-1030. http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjqs-2021-013223Links to an external site.