Nursing students benefit from the latest technology to improve patient care.

Though the Pyxis® MedStation® System is found in hospitals across the country, it is rare to find such a system in a nursing school. Thanks to a generous donation by Community Hospital in Anderson, the School of Nursing, Kinesiology, and Behavioral Sciences at Anderson University is one of only a few nursing schools in the state of Indiana to feature a Pyxis® MedStation® System in its campus lab.

As students at Anderson University prepare to enter the field of nursing, it is important for them to be knowledgeable about the latest technology used in the hospitals where they will one day be working. The new Pyxis® MedStation® System provides students with the latest in medication management technology, making them more marketable as graduates and ensuring the safety of the patients. The Pyxis® MedStation® System provides valuable data on each patient that allows nursing professionals to take a step forward in making decisions to improve the quality of patient care, to prevent possible diversion, and to control costs. The traditional path that medication takes from the pharmaceutical distribution center to the pharmacy to the patient can be error-prone and inefficient, potentially delaying therapies, increasing risks, driving up costs, and complicating efforts to meet regulatory requirements.

The Pyxis® MedStation® System works with the electronic charting systems used by hospitals. Once admitted, all of a patient’s information is entered into an electronic chart. If at any time during the patient’s stay the doctor adds, deletes, or adjusts a patient’s medication, that information is entered into the electronic chart. Data from the electronic chart is sent to the hospital pharmacy, where the pharmacist enters the medication information into the Pyxis® MedStation® System, which is both a computer and medication dispenser. When entering the patient’s name, the nurse sees the list of the patient’s medications as well as the time the patient is to take each medication. When it is time for a medication, the nurse selects the appropriate entry on the screen and the drawer with the prepackaged dose of medication pops open.