Content area
Objective
This study investigated the application of and research on 5G mobile nursing stations in clinical settings.
Methods
A randomized sample of 300 nurses from one hospital was selected. The control group was established from December 2021 to September 2022 as the nurses used the computerized hospital information system (HIS) for nursing documentation and performed routine manual verification of the treatment and patient information. The observation group was established from October 2022 to August 2023 as the nurses used portable digital assistants (PDAs) from the 5G mobile nursing stations for nursing documentation and scanned quick response (QR) codes to verify treatment and patient information. This study compared the time taken by nurses in both scenarios to verify oral medicine dispensing and intravenous (IV) infusions against medical orders, as well as the time taken by nurses to input vital signs and complete nursing documentation.
Results
In the observation group, the average time for verifying IV infusions against medical orders was 52.34 ± 2.61 s, that for verifying oral medicine dispensing against medical orders was 29.32 ± 1.71 s, that for inputting vital signs was 46.82 ± 3.64 s, and that for completing nursing documentation was 86.81 ± 5.62 s. These times were significantly different from those of the control group, which were 59.84 ± 5.76 s, 35.30 ± 2.31 s, 58.58 ± 3.59 s, and 128.51 ± 6.19 s, respectively (P < 0.05).
Conclusions
The use of 5G mobile nursing station PDAs to scan QR codes to verify oral medicine dispensing, IV infusions, other treatments, and patient information resulted in faster verification speeds and 100% accuracy, ensuring accurate treatment information verification and patient safety. Moreover, the use of 5G mobile nursing station PDAs for nursing documentation shortened the time for nurses to input vital signs and complete nursing documentation, thereby improving their efficiency in completing documentation tasks and allowing them to devote more time to patients.