Nurses’ knowledge and deliberations crucial to Barcoded Medication Administration technology in a Dutch hospital
Discovering nurses’ agency inside ruling
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 7787749 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Marcel Boonen (Elisabeth-TweeSteden Hospital, The Netherlands), Marcel J M H Boonen (Elisabeth-TweeSteden Ziekenhuis, corresponding author), Janet Rankin (0000-0001-5355-454X, University of Calgary), Frans Vosman, F J H Vosman (0000-0001-5060-3262), Alistair Niemeijer (0000-0002-4893-7930, University of Humanistic Studies, The Netherlands) |
| Year | 2020 |
| Volume | 24 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 279-298 |
| Publication date | 2020-05-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Health An Interdisciplinary Journal for the Social Study of Health Illness and Medicine (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1363-4593 • E-ISSN: 1461-7196 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/1363459318800155 |
| PMID | 30230356 |
| OpenAlex | W2891007082 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 30 |
This article shows how Barcoded Medication Administration technology institutionally organizes and rules the daily actions of nurses. Although it is widely assumed that Barcoded Medication Administration technology improves quality and safety by reducing the risk of human error, little research has been done on how this technology alters the work of nurses. Drawing on empirical and conceptual strategies of analysis, this qualitative study used certain tools of institutional ethnography to provide a view of how nurses negotiate Barcoded Medication Administration technology. The approach also uses elements from practice theory in order to discern how technology operates as a player on the field instead of being viewed as a ‘mere’ tool. A literature review preceded participant observation, whereby 17 nurses were followed and data on an orthopaedic ward were collected over a period of 9 months in 2011 and 2012. Barcoded Medication Administration technology relies on nurses’ knowledge to mediate between the embedded logics of its design and the unpredictable needs of patients. Nurses negotiate their own professional logic of care in the form of moment-to-moment deliberations which subvert the ruling frame of the barcoded system and its objectified model of patient safety. The logic of Barcoded Medication Administration technology differs from the logic of nursing care, as this technology presumes medication distribution to be linear, even though nurses follow another line of actor-bound safety practices that we characterize as ‘deliberations
Health care · Knowledge management · Negotiation · Participant observation · Patient safety · Political science · Sociology · Computer Science · Electronic Health Records Systems · Law · Medicine · Nursing · Patient Safety and Medication Errors · Psychology · Quality and Safety in Healthcare
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |