week 5
Cassandra Birth
Yesterday Oct 2 at 11:04am
Bar code medication administration (BCMA)
Bar code medication administration (BCMA) is when the patient’s armband is scanned along with the medication, if they match, the medication may be administered (Hebda et al., 2019). This is new technology that helps prevent medication errors. BCMA and e-MAR ensures that the right patient receives the correct medication, this adheres to the 5 patient rights for medication administration (Naidu & Alicia, 2019, p. 511). The 5 patient rights for medication administration are right patient, right medication, right time, right dosage, and right route. While scanning the patient and each medication, if the e-MAR doesn’t recognize the medication for the patient, it won’t allow for the nurse to document that it was given. However, nurses still need to be aware of these pop-ups and place the medication aside because that medication isn’t supposed to go to that patient at that specific time and they need to figure out why. BCMA doesn’t completely prevent medication errors. Nurses still need to focus on the medications they are giving to their patients. Getting distracted by patients and their families can cause the nurse to misplace a medication when scanning them. Ensuring that all the scanned medications are the ones actually given to the patient is critical. Nurses still need to be aware that some medications may be the wrong dosage and may need to be split. They also need to be aware of vital signs and if the medication is still appropriate for the patient to take. Ethically this can be taking away some of the nurse’s autonomy of checking the medication name, dosage, and expiration date on the medication label. BCMA is supposed to reduce medication error, but nurses still need to be focused when administering medications. They need to ensure the patient is in the right condition to be taking specific medications. BCMA doesn’t take into consideration patients vital signs and stability to take a medication, so the nurse will have to still document “not given” in these scenarios. Patient armbands could also be ripped, or wet and unreadable to the scanner. Ensuring that the scanner is working properly and if something is wrong to fully check that it is the correct patient before administering the medications.
Naidu, M., & Alicia, Y. L. (2019). Impact of bar-code medication administration and electronic medication administration record system in clinical practice for an effective medication administration process.
Health,
11(05), 511-526.
https://doi.org/10.4236/health.2019.115044
Hebda, T., Hunter, K., & Czar, P. (2019).
Handbook of informatics for nurses & healthcare professionals (6th ed.). Pearson.
