Back to Search
Start Over
Effects of tall man lettering on the visual behaviour of critical care nurses while identifying syringe drug labels: a randomised in situ simulation.
- Source :
- BMJ Quality & Safety; Jan2023, Vol. 32 Issue 1, p26-33, 18p
- Publication Year :
- 2023
-
Abstract
- Background Patients in intensive care units are prone to the occurrence of medication errors. Look-alike, sound-alike drugs with similar drug names can lead to medication errors and therefore endanger patient safety. Capitalisation of distinct text parts in drug names might facilitate differentiation of medication labels. The aim of this study was to test whether the use of such 'tall man' lettering (TML) reduces the error rate and to examine effects on the visual attention of critical care nurses while identifying syringe labels. Methods This was a prospective, randomised in situ simulation conducted at the University Hospital Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland. Under observation by eye tracking, 30 nurses were given 10 successive tasks involving the presentation of a drug name and its selection from a dedicated set of 10 labelled syringes that included look-alike and sound-alike drug names, half of which had TML-coded labels. Error rate as well as dwell time, fixation count, fixation duration and revisits were analysed using a linear mixed-effects model analysis to compare TML-coded with non-TML-coded labels. Results TML coding of syringe labels led to a significant decrease in the error rate (from 5.3% (8 of 150 in non-TML-coded sets) to 0.7% (1 of 150 in TML-coded sets), p<0.05). Eye tracking further showed that TML affects visual attention, resulting in longer dwell time (p<0.01), more and longer fixations (p<0.05 and p<0.01, respectively) on the drug name as well as more frequent revisits (p<0.01) compared with non-TML-coded labels. Detailed analysis revealed that these effects were stronger for labels using TML in the mid-to-end position of the drug name. Conclusions TML in drug names changes visual attention while identifying syringe labels and supports critical care nurses in preventing medication errors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Subjects :
- MEDICATION error prevention
INTENSIVE care units
SYRINGES
INTENSIVE care nursing
ACADEMIC medical centers
CONFIDENCE intervals
SIMULATION methods in education
CRITICAL care nurses
RANDOMIZED controlled trials
EYE movement measurements
DRUG labeling
ATTENTION
QUESTIONNAIRES
DESCRIPTIVE statistics
STATISTICAL models
STATISTICAL sampling
DATA analysis software
EDUCATIONAL outcomes
LONGITUDINAL method
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 20445415
- Volume :
- 32
- Issue :
- 1
- Database :
- Complementary Index
- Journal :
- BMJ Quality & Safety
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 161443734
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjqs-2021-014438