Preferred Terms and Icons for Labels on Electrosurgical Units: Survey of VA Nurses.

Electrosurgical units (ESUs) developed by different manufacturers use varying terminology and icons to label the same components, which can result in confusion among users and the potential for erroneous ESU configuration. The objective of the current study was to identify nurse-preferred terms and icons for labeling ESU components. A total of 165 operating room (OR) nurses from Veterans Health Administration facilities across the United States were surveyed regarding terms and icons found on 25 ESU models. The results showed that 81% of OR nurses preferred ESUs that included both a term and an icon for labeling each component. In addition, greater consensus existed among OR nurses regarding preferred terms, rather than preferred icons, for representing each component. These findings on OR nurses' preferred terms and icons can be leveraged to improve ESU labeling practices and inform the development of a standardized, user-centered set of labels for ESU components.

Reducing Treatment Errors Through Point-of-Care Glucometer Configuration.

BACKGROUND: Blood glucose (BG) testing is the most widely performed point-of-care (POC) test in a hospital setting. Multiple adverse events reported to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) revealed that treatment decisions may be affected by information displayed on the POC glucometer's results screen. A randomized, crossover simulation study was conducted to compare two results screen configurations for ACCU-CHEK Inform II, a POC glucometer. METHODS: Prior to the study, a heuristic evaluation of the results screen configurations and a pilot study were conducted to select the two results screen configurations for comparison. At two multicampus medical centers, 66 nurse participants experienced two computer-based simulation scenarios that asked them to interpret glucometer readings and make treatment decisions for simulated patients with 32 mg/dL BG levels and subtle symptoms of hypoglycemia. One scenario displayed a numeric value ("32 mg/dL"), and the other displayed a range abbreviation, such as "RR LO" (out of reportable range; low). Treatment errors were recorded when the participant did not treat the hypoglycemic patient with glucose or when they administered insulin. RESULTS: When ACCU-CHEK Inform II displayed an "RR LO" reading, 10.6% of participants made a treatment error, including 6.7% of participants with prior training on the meaning of an "RR LO" reading. None of the participants made a treatment error when ACCU-CHEK Inform II displayed a "32 mg/dL" reading. CONCLUSION: Displaying a numeric BG reading eliminated potentially life-threating treatment errors caused by confusing range abbreviations. Manufacturers should consider these findings during future research and development of POC glucometers.