Applying the Results and Conclusion of the Research Process to Problems in Health Care

This paper will further analyze a research study that focuses on medication administration error rates. The title of the article used for this research is “Impact on simulation-based learning on medication error rates in critically ill patients.” This study introduces lecture style educational sessions to those in the medical intensive care unit (MICU) and simulation-based learning educational sessions to those in the coronary care unit (CCU). This study was conducted in an adult CCU and MICU. A total of 24 nurses were directly observed while administering medications.

Data of the actions of these nurses was collected in sessions. The first session was a baseline observation of the nurses before introduction of the interventions. The second session an initial post observation was completed one to four weeks after interventions. The final post intervention observation was completed eight to 12 weeks after completion of the interventions. This method of data collection was appropriate for this study. The first session of data collection in the MICU provided the researcher with numerical statistics to compare later collected data to. For instance, during the baseline period the MICU was found to have 20.8% of medication error rates in dosages administered. The initial post intervention observation provided the researcher with statistics of errors after the lecture style education sessions were introduced to the nurses. For this study no statistical significant changes occurred from the first session to the second. The final post intervention observation showed the researcher a statistical significant increase occurred showing a 36.7% error rate. During the baseline period of the CCU 30.8% medication administration errors were found to be given. The initial post intervention was conducted after simulation-based learning sessions were introduced to the nurses. The results reflected a statistical significant reduction in medication administration errors occurring at only a four percent rate. The final post intervention for this group showed that over time error rates stabilized at a 6.2% rate. This study was not designed to analyze changes in individual types of medication errors. The statistics from this study not only provided the data of error rates occurring but also which learning style is more effective.

The article on this particular study did not discuss the steps that were taken to protect the rights of the subjects; although it does state that a parallel design in the two different ICUs was used. This design was used to minimize the risk of participants to share knowledge of the intervention types in the same unit. The data collection tools used in this study mostly used was direct observation. Even though a risk of data collection bias may be present because observers were aware of the studies and the observer. The results and analysis was completed by investigators who were not aware of the phases of the study.