Medical errors are the third leading cause of death in the United States. Medical errors also incur significant cost ramifications due to increased hospital length of stay and fines. Medication errors, a type of medical error, are one of the most common types of inpatient errors. Nurses are most often are responsible for medication administration, but safety during medication administration should be a priority of all hospital personnel. Avoidable interruptions during medication administration contribute to medical errors. Decreasing interruptions require increased nurse assertiveness during medication administration, interdisciplinary cooperation and unit culture change. This project identified that educating the unit clerk of their role in triaging phone calls and call lights can decrease nurse interruptions during medication administration. When the unit clerk discerned which phone calls were emergent and non-emergent and fielded non-nurse necessary calls to appropriate staff, there was a 43% decrease in nurse interruptions. This is encouraging data and further progress towards patient safety can be made with the collaboration of other hospital staff.
","abstract_html":"<p>Medical errors are the third leading cause of death in the United States. Medical errors also incur significant cost ramifications due to increased hospital length of stay and fines. Medication errors, a type of medical error, are one of the most common types of inpatient errors. Nurses are most often are responsible for medication administration, but safety during medication administration should be a priority of all hospital personnel. Avoidable interruptions during medication administration contribute to medical errors. Decreasing interruptions require increased nurse assertiveness during medication administration, interdisciplinary cooperation and unit culture change. This project identified that educating the unit clerk of their role in triaging phone calls and call lights can decrease nurse interruptions during medication administration. When the unit clerk discerned which phone calls were emergent and non-emergent and fielded non-nurse necessary calls to appropriate staff, there was a 43% decrease in nurse interruptions. This is encouraging data and further progress towards patient safety can be made with the collaboration of other hospital staff. </p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Dimaano, Christine"],"institution":null,"degree_name":"Master of Science in Nursing (MSN)","degree_level":"Project/Capstone - Global access","degree_discipline":null,"degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Danijela Pavlic"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2014,"date_issued":"2014-12-12T08:00:00Z","date_published":"2014-12-12T08:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T05:42:56Z","subjects":["interruptions","unit clerk","medication administration","medication errors","ward clerk","Other Nursing"],"languages":[],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://repository.usfca.edu/capstone/65","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Danijela Pavlic"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Dimaano, Christine"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2014-12-03T08:00:00Z"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Project/Capstone - Global access"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Master of Science in Nursing (MSN)"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["interruptions","unit clerk","medication administration","medication errors","ward clerk","Other Nursing"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://repository.usfca.edu/capstone/65"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["Medical errors are the third leading cause of death in the United States. Medical errors also incur significant cost ramifications due to increased hospital length of stay and fines. Medication errors, a type of medical error, are one of the most common types of inpatient errors. Nurses are most often are responsible for medication administration, but safety during medication administration should be a priority of all hospital personnel. Avoidable interruptions during medication administration contribute to medical errors. Decreasing interruptions require increased nurse assertiveness during medication administration, interdisciplinary cooperation and unit culture change. This project identified that educating the unit clerk of their role in triaging phone calls and call lights can decrease nurse interruptions during medication administration. When the unit clerk discerned which phone calls were emergent and non-emergent and fielded non-nurse necessary calls to appropriate staff, there was a 43% decrease in nurse interruptions. This is encouraging data and further progress towards patient safety can be made with the collaboration of other hospital staff.
"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Collaborating With the Unit Clerk to Decrease Avoidable Interruptions During Medication Administration on a Medical Surgical Unit"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Danijela Pavlic"],"dc:creator":["Dimaano, Christine"],"dc:date.available":["2014-12-03T08:00:00Z"],"dc:description.abstract":["Medical errors are the third leading cause of death in the United States. Medical errors also incur significant cost ramifications due to increased hospital length of stay and fines. Medication errors, a type of medical error, are one of the most common types of inpatient errors. Nurses are most often are responsible for medication administration, but safety during medication administration should be a priority of all hospital personnel. Avoidable interruptions during medication administration contribute to medical errors. Decreasing interruptions require increased nurse assertiveness during medication administration, interdisciplinary cooperation and unit culture change. This project identified that educating the unit clerk of their role in triaging phone calls and call lights can decrease nurse interruptions during medication administration. When the unit clerk discerned which phone calls were emergent and non-emergent and fielded non-nurse necessary calls to appropriate staff, there was a 43% decrease in nurse interruptions. This is encouraging data and further progress towards patient safety can be made with the collaboration of other hospital staff.
"],"dc:identifier":["https://repository.usfca.edu/capstone/65"],"dc:subject":["interruptions","unit clerk","medication administration","medication errors","ward clerk","Other Nursing"],"dc:title":["Collaborating With the Unit Clerk to Decrease Avoidable Interruptions During Medication Administration on a Medical Surgical Unit"],"thesis:degree_level":["Project/Capstone - Global access"],"thesis:degree_name":["Master of Science in Nursing (MSN)"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T05:42:56Z"}