Semester

Summer

Date of Graduation

2024

Document Type

Problem/Project Report

Degree Type

DNP

College

School of Nursing

Committee Chair

Teresa Ritchie

Committee Co-Chair

Kellon Smith

Committee Member

Sean Griffith

Abstract

According to a report published by the Institute of Medicine, at least 44,000 and possibly up to 98,000 Americans die each year because of medical errors in hospitals. More than 7,000 of those deaths are from medication errors alone (Stucki et al., 2013). Anesthesia providers in the operating room (OR) are at even greater risk to commit medication errors due to their easy access to medications and their autonomy to make independent choices for medication administration. A small rural community hospital in Pennsylvania lacks a protocol for Precedex preparation. Evidence-based research show the benefit of prefilled ready-to-administer syringes, but the cost of this medication preparation versus traditional vial and syringe preparation is of concern of administration at this facility. A PICO question was developed for this project: In operative patients receiving Precedex (P), how does the use of pre-filled Precedex syringes prepared in the pharmacy or purchased from a pharmaceutical company (I) compared to current practice of a nurse anesthetist mixing multi-use Precedex bags and 5mL individual syringes (C) affect safety and cost (O)? Evaluation of safety and cost of the current Precedex preparation method at this facility, a pharmacy preparation method, and pharmaceutical prefilled syringes was completed. Results showed that a pharmacy preparation method proved to be the least expensive method. Pharmacy prepared and pharmaceutical company preparation were the safest methods for medication administration.

Download

Share

COinS