Although there doesn’t seem to be any consensus about the exact number, the various Rights of Medication Administration provide a comprehensive guide for nurses and healthcare workers, helping reduce errors when administering drugs to patients. But is there a way to reduce these errors even more?

 

Let’s take a look...

 

What Are the Rights of Medication Administration?

If you work as a nurse or within the healthcare field in any capacity, you’ve probably heard of the Rights of Medication Administration. Basically, they act as a procedural guide to doctors and nurses when giving drugs to patients in healthcare centres such as hospitals and clinics.

 

 

The exact number of rights is up for debate and, depending where you are in the world, there may be more or less rights to follow. The USA seems to favour 10 rights, the UK 6 and India seems to follow a whopping 16 rights. No matter where you are, there are 5 core procedures which are:

 

•    The right patient
•    The right medication
•    The right dose
•    The right route
•    The right time

 

With the passage of time and the evolution of nursing, these rights have grown arms and legs and, as we said, depending on where you are, you may see add-ons such as:

 

•    The right patient education
•    The right documentation
•    The right to refuse
•    The right assessment
•    The right evaluation

 

...amongst others.

 

 

The Rights Reduce Error

There may be a wide range of rights, but the goal is the same worldwide: to reduce the risk of errors when administering medication and, as a result, improve patient safety.

 

These rights are taught in nursing colleges and universities throughout the world. Through study, consolidated by repeated practical and feedback sessions, healthcare professionals have these rights drummed into them throughout their careers.

 

Practice makes perfect, as they say, and as in all facets of life, training is essential to success. We also learn from our mistakes and, in the healthcare sector, this period of practical exercises and simulation is especially essential as mistakes can, at the extreme end of the scale, lead to the loss of life.

 

Combine simulation with an easy to remember set of rules such as the Rights of Medication Administration and the student nurse or trainee doctor can prepare themselves successfully for the workplace.

 

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."

George Santayana

 

 

Evaluation and Feedback: The Keys to Success

So, correct application of these rights can save lives, but how do you know that a student is ready to be let loose in the workplace? How can you ensure that they understand them and can correctly apply the procedures involved?

 

 

In the time honoured tradition, observation and evaluation are fundamental. It’s the teacher’s role to check a student’s performance and this is no different in the world of healthcare. It’s also the teacher’s role to be a mentor, a guide and to point out errors in a completely objective capacity.

 

There are many ways they can do this, from an informal conversation to a written report to a final grade, the teacher has the power to affect the course of the student. But how can they ensure the objectivity that their role requires?

 

Is there a way to measure performance that is adaptable, scalable and, above all, absolutely 100% objective?

 

Well, yes there is. That’s what Codimg was designed for.

 

 

How to use Codimg to Analyse the Correct Application of the Rights

Codimg offers healthcare professionals the tools to optimise their working practices and reduce errors through video analysis.

 

Obviously, the use of video in evaluation is nothing new and the steps will still be the same as traditional evaluation, ie. observation, analysis and feedback. But Codimg makes this process quicker and much more effective.

 

There are many advantages to using video analysis technology in the training of student nurses and evaluation of established nursing practice.

 

Let’s look at the processes involved...

 

 

Scalable and Versatile Observation

Evaluation always begins with observation. The teacher watches the student, takes copious notes and feeds back to the student on their grade.

 

Unfortunately, reams of ragged notes and limited recall are natural obstacles for true evaluation and subjectivity can often creep into the assessor’s work. But what if there was a way to film everything, record the salient points of a simulation and recall these at the click of a button?

 

This is exactly what Codimg offers you. Observation is done with the aid of a button template (see attached image) which is created by the teacher to correspond to their evaluation criteria. A button for each criteria is created, when the tutor sees one of these actions happening, they “tag” the video by pressing the corresponding button which creates a clip of that moment. At the end of the practical session, the tutor has a collection of clips, and information pertaining to the clips, which can be readily recalled.

 

 

As you can imagine, this saves an incredible amount of time and, best of all, it’s 100% objective.

 

The great advantage of this system is that you can create as many buttons on your template as you need (scalability) and for any purpose (versatility). This is great for evaluation of the Rights of Medication Administration, especially given the different criteria in different institutions.

 

 

Dynamic and Precise Review of Data

Reviewing and analysing the collected data is simple. Codimg puts a wide range of tools at your disposal in order to do this quickly and effortlessly.

 

The teacher can access the relevant video clips by searching for a specific tag or combination of tags. They can also clearly see how many times a specific action happened during the observation session.

 

The footage can be rewatched at their leisure and can reveal details that were completely missed during the live observation. In addition, video clips can be compared side-by-side, notes can be added, clips rate and...many other things.

 

 

Objective Presentation of Conclusions

So, the event has been comprehensively documented, reviewed and evaluated. Now it’s time for the observer to present their conclusions to students.

 

Codimg’s presentation environment is a quick and easy way to take large volumes of data and video clips and produce eye-catching and informative video compilations for students to review.

 

The tutor simply has to create playlists of the relevant clips. Text notes can be added as well as video drawings, external images or PowerPoint slides to highlight key points.

 

The video can then be produced and exported as an MP4 with all these elements included and either emailed directly to the student or placed on an online platform where the student can download and review it at their leisure.

 

There really is no better way to give constructive, actionable feedback.

 

 

Try It for Yourself

As we said, Codimg is not only useful for the evaluation of the Rights of Medication Administration. It can be adapted to any facet of healthcare training or workplace monitoring.

 

Codimg can make a difference.

 

If you’d like to try it for yourself and see how Codimg can benefit your institution, get in contact with us today to speak to our sales staff who will be happy to talk through your needs and set you up with a free 30-day trial of the software.

 

We look forward to hearing from you!