Barcode Scanning Verification During Medication Administration

In addition to medication verification, barcode scanning is a known measure to improve patient safety and reduce the risk of medication errors yet many barriers remain including workarounds which impede effective barcode scanning (Lee, Lee, Kwon, & Yi, 2015).  Findings of workarounds include exclusion of the correct process steps to be performed during medication administration, steps performed out of sequence, and various unauthorized process steps (Koppel et al., 2008).  Barriers to scanning verification include usability problems with the interface between the barcode, scanning device and computer program, the scanning device detecting a discrepancy between the intended and scanned medications, nurses confused by automated barcode medication administration system actions and other issues (Lee et al, 2015).  The purpose/question of this project, therefore, is to investigate barriers to barcode scanning among nurses in an urban acute care facility.  A descriptive survey design will be used to investigate fifty nurses’ experiences with barriers to medication administration barcode scanning verification.  A link to a Qualtrics survey will ask those volunteering to participate to sign a consent and afterwards to complete the survey capturing demographics, 28 pre-set questions rank-ordering the most common known barriers in addition to 16 open-ended questions.  Rank-order data will be entered into SPSS version 23 and analyzed using descriptive statistics.  Narrative data will be entered into Atlas.ti and examined for recurring themes.  Research suggests bedside medication verification and barcode scanning workarounds resulted from barriers the nurses face when implementing the designed scanning and verification process.  It is not known which of the barriers are the most significant and if there other, as yet unidentified, barriers that need further exploration.  Continued research can improve the identification of nurse specific barriers, reduction of workarounds, and the subsequent potential medication errors linked to the barriers (Koppel et al., 2008; Lee et al., 2015; and Poon et al., 2010).  It is anticipated that the findings from this study will lead to the development of interventions to address the nursing specific barriers.