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Responses to Other Students: Respond to at least 1 of your fellow classmates with at least a 250-word reply about their Primary Task Response regarding items you found to be compelling and enlightening. To help you with your discussion, please consider the following questions:

• What did you learn from your classmate’s posting?
• What additional questions do you have after reading the posting?
• What clarification do you need regarding the posting?
• What differences or similarities do you see between your posting and other classmates’ postings?

All sources should be cited using APA format. Grammar, spelling, punctuation, and format should be correct and professional.

Discussion Board Rubric

REPOST AND REPOND

The deployment of a bar-code medication administration (BCMA) system within a 200-bed acute care facility significantly contributes to improved patient safety, more precise medication administration, and a reduction in preventable adverse events. By using BCMA, nurses will scan patients wristbands and medications prior to administration to ensure accuracy and compliance with the five rights. Though intuitive, proper education with practice and follow-through will ensure nurses are able to integrate BCMA into their workflows. If teaching practices are not implemented and enforced properly, the system could be unused or improperly used.

The overall objective of this teaching plan is multifold: nurses will understand how to properly scan medications and patients bands and verify the correct medications. They will know how BCMA decreases chances of administering the wrong medication to patients. Nurses will identify barriers to BCMA technology and know who to contact to help problem solve any difficulties. They will also learn how to report problems with medication errors and workflow improvements through quality improvement committees. To address these multiple objectives, a blended learning approach will be used. Hands-on demonstrations will allow nurses to practice scanning medications and patient identification bands. Nurses will simulate real-life cases to practice administration of multiple medications to a patient within a short period of time. Workshop activities will allow nurses to role-play administration barriers including scanning mistakes, system messages, and misprinted barcodes. Workshops will allow nurses to practice approaching the BCMA tech team to ensure proper problem solving techniques are followed. Online modules will allow nurses to reference how to use the system at any time. Peers who understand the system will mentor new nurses for a few weeks while on their unit, allowing for a resource for questions when they arise.

Potential barriers to implementation include resistance to change, difficulty with technology, workflow interruptions/increase in workload, and time to complete education. Many nurses tend to feel that BCMA creates another step in their process, especially if they are feeling rushed with high acuity patients. Equipment failures such as unreadable barcodes, damaged packaging, scanner issues, and interruption in internet-based technology may lead to BCMA deficiencies (Grailey, Hussain, Wylleman, et al., 2023). Workflow may be negatively impacted by BCMA as nurses on med-surg units may feel as though scanning each medication slows down rounding and causes more pressure to work faster. Some nurses have taken to workarounds when implementing BCMA because of these fears. Another barrier is time; often, it is difficult to find block times to complete education in an acute care setting. Adult learners have different learning styles. Some nurses may have a harder time with tech versus others. Thus, it is important to use different teaching methods including visual, hands-on, and web-based training. Grailey et al. (2023) also recognize barriers are not individual knowledge and skill level. Nurses work in ward cultures and peer groups are accountable for BCMA successes and failures. Ergonomic design can impact the efficiency of BCMA technology as well.

BCMA is a safe and effective evidence-based practice. Mahmoud, Al-Khani, and Hassans (2025) study evaluates how BCMA increases safe practices when administering medications. BCMA decreases chances of administering the wrong drug or wrong patient by scanning both the patients identification band and medication pack. Preventable adverse events decrease while nurses confidence increases when administering medications with BCMA technology. Nurses who fail to use BCMA are more likely to make an error. Patients also reported feeling safer when nurses used BCMA properly. Like Mahmoud et al. (2025) found, Grailey et al. (2023) study showed that nurses felt BCMA took longer to complete rounds. However, BCMA allows nurses to skip manual double checks and documentation taking up less time in nurses workflows.

I would share Mahmoud et al. (2025) study with colleagues to show how BCMA not only benefits patients but improves workflow and efficiencies. Once nurses understand how BCMA could benefit them, they are less likely to feel like the technology is another task on their checklist.

Various methods will be used to evaluate this teaching plan. A checklist will be used to watch nurses perform BCMA medication administration. An end-of-implementation survey will be distributed to ask questions regarding BCMA barriers, confidence in using the system, and how nurses felt about the teaching methods. As with any new implementation, rates of medication errors will be monitored and compared to previous years. This will overall benefit patient safety in the healthcare facility.

References

Grailey, K., Hussain, R., Wylleman, E., et al. (2023). Understanding the facilitators and barriers to barcode medication administration by nursing staff using behavioral science frameworks . BMC Nursing, 22:378.

Mahmoud, A., Al-Khani, A., & Hassan, R. (2025). Impact of barcode medication administration on patient safety in acute care settings . BMJ Open, 15 (11) e109619.