Information Technology (I/T) in Nursing Education: Assessing Safety in the Process of Medication Administration

The twenty-first century is witnessing considerab le changes in health care professions, including the nursing profession, and information technology is playing an important role in this transformation. Although, me dication errors significantly affect the patient, but they are preventable events. This way, and also for the importance in the nurses' education, this study determined the im pact of changing from a unit dose to an automated medication dispensing system (ADS) thr ough all phases of the drug therapy process. The National Coordinating Council for Medication Error Reporting and Prevention (NCCMERP) taxonomy was used to measu r medication errors. The use of the ADS showed a tendency towards a better c lassification of B/A category errors. Based on the new evidence in informatics is vital that we continue integrated and strengthened the educational curriculum with th e new technologies to continue improving our health care system. It is important t hat nurses continue enhancing their competencies oriented in patient-centered. Key-words: Information Technology (IT), Nursing Education, A utomated Dispensing System (ADS), Safety, Medication Error, Harm. a Metropolitan University (Puerto Rico, United States ); b University of Malaga (Spain); c Innovative Pharmacy Solutions “Cardinal Health PR” (P uerto Rico, United States). Correspondence: Maribel Rodríguez Pérez, Universidad Metropolitana, PO Box 21150, San Juan, PR 00926-2602 (Puerto Rico, United States) mro driguez496@suagm.edu. Maribel Rodríguez Pérez, Zaida Vega Lugo, José P. De la Cruz Cortes, José A. González Correa, Diana Rivera Alsina and Ileanexis Torres Santiago, International Journal of Educational Excellence, (2018) Vol. 4, No. 2, 47-65. ISSN 2373-5929 DOI: 10.18562/IJEE.038