The Journal of nursing administration
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Improving medication safety at the point of care--particularly for high-risk drugs--is a major concern of nursing administrators. The medication errors most likely to cause harm are administration errors related to infusion of high-risk medications. An intravenous medication safety system is designed to prevent high-risk infusion medication errors and to capture continuous quality improvement data for best practice improvement. Initial testing with 50 systems in 2 units at Vanderbilt University Medical Center revealed that, even in the presence of a fully mature computerized prescriber order-entry system, the new safety system averted 99 potential infusion errors in 8 months.
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The purpose of the study was to enable nurse managers to identify strategies to support and enhance autonomous practice based on clinical nurses' understanding of autonomy. ⋯ These findings challenge assumptions about autonomy as independent decision making and practice. They highlight nurses' contributions to patient care goals through knowledge of how to get things done within hospital systems and through interdisciplinary coordination and collaboration.