Nurses' Attitude for Using Barcode Medication Administration System in a Developing Country.

Medication errors are common in healthcare settings. To prevent these errors, use of modern technology is suggested. Improvement of medication administration system particularly at the time of drug administration is mandated in Iran. Barcode medication administration (BCMA) systems are useful in this regard. This study was conducted to assess nurses' attitude for the use of BCMA systems. To this end, 283 randomly selected nurses working in teaching hospitals were surveyed using a five point Likert scale questionnaire. The most positive attitudes were related to the role of BCMA in reducing medication errors (4.02±0.8), improving performance (3.8±0.99), productivity (3.8±0.97) and making patient care easier (3.83±0.9). Only 9.9 percent of nurses did not like to use the technology. There was no significant difference between nurses in terms of their age, experience, education, and hospitals. In conclusion, nurses' attitude about BCMA was in a relatively good level. However, there is a need to train nurses for the use of this technology.

A Feasibility Study on the Implementation of Teleconsultation in Tuberculosis Patients in Zabol City of Iran.

Teleconsultation can be used for tuberculosis patients, especially in deprived area. We surveyed all of 60 employees in health centers and tuberculosis center in such area in Iran about feasibility (organizational, technical, human and environmental readiness) of implementing teleconsultation and its barriers. We found that human readiness was moderate and other aspects were weak. Furthermore, the main obstacles were the shortage of computer equipment (40%), technical infrastructure (35%), lack of funds (33.3%), lack of awareness (33.3%), and employee resistance (33.3%). Implementing teleconsultation for tuberculosis patients is not completely feasible in this area and requires improvement in organizational, technical and environmental factors.