Nurses' Evaluation of Computerized Medication Management

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to discover safe and effective tasks in medication management for nurses; create a new electronic medication administration record, or eMAR; and formally and informally assess this new eMAR.

Design: Descriptive, exploratory.

Sample: Study purpose 1, concerning the tasks, used 12 Army, Navy, and Air Force nurses as participants to discover the medication administrative tasks. Study purpose 2, concerning the new eMAR evaluation, used 20 Navy clinical staff nurse participants from Navy Medical Center San Diego.

Methods: Study purpose 1 used system analysis techniques to discover medication administration tasks. Study purpose 2 involved these steps: a) create a new Web-based eMAR, b) recruit a convenience sample of clinical staff nurses and assess their demographics and previous computer experience, c) instruct the sample using a standard online tutorial developed for the study, d) have the participants interact with the eMAR using critical tasks identified during Study purpose 1, e) have the participants formally evaluate the new eMAR for user satisfaction using the Questionnaire for User Interaction Satisfaction, and f) evaluate the eMAR informally by asking specific questions about functionality and recommendations for improvement.

Instrumentation: The SNCEQ, or Staggers Nursing Computer Experience Questionnaire (version 1998), was used to assess previous computer experience in the sample. The QUIS, or Questionnaire for User Interaction Satisfaction (version 7.0), was used to assess the sample's perception of the usability of the interface for the eMAR.

Findings: The sample's mean computer experience (knowledge and use) for general computers and clinical information systems was 134 out of a possible of 256, indicating a moderate amount of experience and a gradual increase from previous nurse samples assessed by the PI. The innovative eMAR was well received. The QUIS scores ranged from 80% to 89% satisfaction (mean scores of 7.2 to 7.5) on the various subscales, meaning that the new eMAR had positive ratings. The participants' comments were positive overall and enthusiastic from some of the sample. Comments for improvement included methods to make the current patient's name even more obvious, expanding the number of viewable medications to their maximum, and exploring faster methods for settings like Labor and Delivery. Nurses did not score high in accuracy when asked to identify information out of the view of view. These data suggest future studies should explore methods to increase the viewable number of medications and explore obvious methods to indicate that additional information is out of the view of view. Last, basic eMAR design principles are outlined.

Final report is available on NTRL: https://ntrl.ntis.gov/NTRL/dashboard/searchResults/titleDetail/PB2008108936.xhtml