Medical Shipment Blog

Recently we covered why Dr. Pam Jeffries, Professor of Nursing and Dean of George Washington University School of Nursing says “Every simulation center today needs a Pyxis, as well as shared an expose on why BD is working exclusively with Medical Shipment to distribute its MedStation ES machines to nursing simulation programs in the United States. Today, we share a just released series of videos produced by Medical Shipment that showcase the benefits, value, and operational workflows of the MedStation ES. These videos are must watch guides for any simulation in nursing program considering an acquisition of this very helpful medication administration learning system!

Video 1: Intro to Pyxis MedStation ES for Nursing Simulation Educators

Kelly Larrabee-Robke, the Vice President of Clinical Thought Leadership at BD opens the first video saying “Today I’d like to show you around some of the devices, particularly the MedStation ES system and nursing workflows.” She continues sharing that the first video will cover “the value of Pyxis to nursing, why it’s important to train our future nurses on the workflows and the capabilities of Pyxis.

This video will also give you some information to support and ensure the competencies in practice, and the confidence and practice that nursing students need when they make the transition from the practicum environment to the floor, and through licensure onto their career.”

She further explains in the video that “We know that nurses spend over 24-25% of their time at a minimum, on medication activities, whether that is on orders, whether that is on education, administering the medication, retrieving the medication, monitoring for signs and symptoms. So we really want to protect and fortify those activities and optimize them where possible to ensure that nurses are getting the maximum time at the bedside with their patients on those activities that matter most. And we also want to protect the nurse and ensure that they are administering medications at the right time, at the right place, and ensure safety and quality throughout the care delivery process.”

Video 2: Pyxis MedStation ES Features

In this video, we walk through a few features of the actual hardware and software configuration of the Pyxis MedStation ES system to help sim lab coordinators, clinical simulation instructors, and simulation in healthcare faculty prepare students for the optimal experience and the intuitive look and feel of how the equipment and the system operates to support nursing care workflows.

Presentation Abstract:

While all healthcare simulation programs need supplies and equipment for their students, their specific product needs can vary based on geographical location, curriculum and cost. Medical Shipment’s webinar will deliver a high-level overview of the company from exploring the process and benefits of Medical Shipment’s customized kits, provide an update on the Pyxis MedStation ES for the educational setting, Medical Shipment’s private label products and additional supplies and equipment for daily lab operations.

Learning Objectives:

1. Discuss Pyxis MedStation ES updates to improve nursing simulation.
2. Discuss the importance and benefits of customized kits for clinical students.
3. Analyze the kit building process and levels of customization available from Medical Shipment.

Meet the Presenter:

Samantha Elliott,BSN

Sales Representative at Medical Shipment LLC

Since joining Medical Shipment in 2022, Samantha has provided supplies, equipment, custom kits and Pyxis MedStation to hundreds of healthcare simulation programs across the United States. Over the past 2 years, Samantha has developed a strong passion for improving healthcare institutions so educators can develop and encourage today’s students into our future leaders.

Disclosure: Samantha is employed by Medical Shipment.

Next week on May 15th, world renown nursing simulation expert Dr. Pamela R. Jeffries, PhD, RN, FAAN, ANEF, FSSH, Dean of Vanderbilt University School of Nursing, Co-Chair of GNSH, and author of several must-read healthcare simulation books will conduct a HealthySimulation.com CE webinar to focus on realism in healthcare simulation scenarios and building clinical simulation centers to meet this objective, sponsored by Medical Shipment. Medical Shipment emphasizes providing simulated medical supplies and premium equipment to help support the future of healthcare training, and is the exclusive provider of simulation programs requiring BD Alaris Infusion Pumps, BD Pyxis Medication Dispensing System, and customizable nursing kits. Medical Shipment’s goal is to ensure the products they provide fit the needs of healthcare educational programs at a competitive rate, with customer service at the core of our values. This HealthySimulation.com article by Teresa Gore, PhD, DNP, APRN, FNP-BC, CHSE-A, FSSH, FAAN, will delve into providing realistic supplies to promote high-quality simulation for the best educational opportunities for healthcare students.

Special Opportunity! Watch the recorded open-access CE webinar by Dr. Jeffries webinar on Developing Healthcare Simulation Centers to Create Realistic Clinical Scenarios!

Dr. Pamela R. Jeffries and Need for Realistic Clinical Scenarios: Pamela R. Jeffries, PhD, RN, FAAN, ANEF, FSSH, will conduct a HealthySimulation.com CE webinar to focus on realism in healthcare simulation scenarios and building clinical simulation centers to meet this objective. Dr. Jeffries, Dean of Vanderbilt University School of Nursing, expresses the need for realistic clinical scenarios and is internationally known for her research and work in nursing, simulation, and health care. The notion of why realism is important, the types of realism, and different strategies to promote realism will all be discussed. Creating the right scenarios with a realistic nursing simulation or healthcare simulation environment may help to facilitate the transference of needed health professional skills to the clinical setting.

In conjunction with the National League for Nursing (NLN), Dr. Jeffries provided the major contribution to simulation scholarship, the framework and monograph now known as the NLN Jeffries Simulation Theory. Her numerous publications, including the recently released second edition of The NLN Jeffries Simulation Theory, cover a wide range of topics pertinent to nursing education, clinical simulations, and healthcare policy.

The Pyxis Enterprise Server (ES) platform supplied by Medical Shipment provides healthcare simulation environments with realistic equipment that is imperative for nursing students to learn the psychomotor skill of medication administration. The Pyxis ES platform from CareFusion is designed to address the healthcare landscape transformation and usher in a new generation of Pyxis solutions. The cornerstone of the new platform is the Pyxis MedStation ES system to allow nursing students to practice strategies to prevent medication errors and use the best evidence-based practices. This HealthySimulation.com article discusses the advantages of Pyxis ES for nursing school programs.

Register for Medical Shipment’s Upcoming Webinar on
Preventing Med Errors: Why Every Clinical Simulation Program Needs a Real Pyxis MedStation

Pyxis ES platform solutions are designed to help nurses improve medication safety ,streamline standardization efforts and reduce costs to improve patient and systems outcomes. The strength of the Pyxis ES platform lies in the ability to integrate with health information technology (HIT) across the health system. This integration supports centralized control of medication-dispensing systems and gives nurses the data needed in real time to allow nurses to make the most informed decisions along with immediate reports and documentation.

In order to develop safe quality patient care skills, nursing students must be able to practice in realistic simulated environments. This includes the Pyxis ES for medication administration. The Pyxis ES platform provides a simple, safe patient-centered clinical workflow. The ES allows students to learn how the systems are interlinked and can be accessed from any hospital or web browser for minimization of disruptions, delays in medication administration and risk of medication errors.

The Pyxis ES platform leverages centralized configuration efforts across the health system for the nursing student to learn to function in actual patient care environments. The Pyxis ES facilitates selected regulatory compliance and enables meaningful healthcare information technology integration. These are some of The Essentials: Core Competencies for Professional Nursing Education by the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN). With the incorporation of Pyxis ES in the nursing programs, the nursing students learn on the same equipment that is utilized in many clinical practice institutions.

Nursing Benefits

The Pyxis ES has a patient centered workflow. This workflow interface provides nurses with access to comprehensive medication and patient information located in one place, to help nurses get the information quicker than ever. The process begins with the My Patients screen in the Pyxis MedStation ES system to allow the nurse to focus on the most important aspect of their job and profession which is their patients.

Nurses can dispense medications in four steps that can occur in just five seconds. Through integration in nursing school programs, the nursing student learns to practice these steps which can increase the speed of medication administration with safety. The Pyxis MedStation ES system helps nurses dispense the right medication for the right patient at the right time. Safety enhancements, such as clearly highlighting patients with the same last name, help reduce the risk of potentially harmful errors.

For educators to run medical simulation scenarios worldwide effectively, they must be able to locate and ascertain the necessary healthcare simulation-based products and resources. In response, the company Medical Shipment emphasizes providing these medical supplies and premium equipment to help support the future of medicine. Medical Shipment is a leading provider of simulation programs requiring BD Alaris Infusion Pumps, BD Pyxis Medication Dispensing System, and customizable nursing kits. The Medical Shipment team shared with the HealthySimulation.com team the pride they take in providing some of the most advanced products and top-performing customer service in the medical supply industry. Medical Shipment looks forward to providing simulation champions with more information on innovative products that will maximize efficiency throughout clinics nationwide. This HealthySimulation.com article will discuss the products supplied by Medical Shipment.

A Message from Medical Shipment Founder and CEO – Dan Micic

“Medical Shipment started with an ambitious idea to revolutionize the healthcare industry! The guidance and insight from nurse educators opened my eyes to the world of nursing education. I immediately connected to the value of supplying medical students and healthcare professionals with premium equipment to aid the future of medicine. Over the past 11 years, Medical Shipment has actively prioritized customer service and satisfaction above all, and our growth as a company is only a reflection of our dedication.”

“Nurses play a vital role in the future of all our lives, and their dedication and hard work is inspiring. By offering state-of-the-art tools, product insight, and time-saving shopping, Medical Shipment enables future nurses to focus on their education with the tools they need to succeed.”

Alaris Infusion System Devices

IV medication preparation and administration skills require a higher level of critical thinking. The most common IV administration errors include the wrong rate, medication dose miscalculation, and solvents or medications incompatibility. These skills and critical thinking are taught in nursing school. However, some nursing programs use IV pumps that are decommissioned, old, or static images of an IV pump. These pumps, or lack thereof, may be unable to calculate the dosage of IV continuous infusion medications or bolus for safe patient care. Older IV pumps may not have a current list of medications and dosages or do not have the capability to calculate the medication dosage and rates. This is why Alaris IV Pumps distributed by Medical Shipment can solve this problem.

Alaris is an all-in-one solution that provides everything needed to collect, interpret, and respond to IV medication data captured at the point of care. You can quickly download data for rapid cycle improvement using wireless data set transfer and Guardrails suite MX software alerts. Alaris infusion systems work independently and together to deliver infusions accurately while helping protect each patient. The hospital’s latest drug and IV therapy delivery parameters can be uploaded just as easily, helping to ensure clinicians always have the most up-to-date drug library. A combination of hardware and software solutions, the Alaris Systems Include:

Medical Shipment is a leading provider for simulation programs requiring BD Alaris Infusion Pumps and BD Pyxis Medication Dispensing System. The Medical Shipment team shared with the HealthySimulation.com team the pride taken to provide some of the most advanced products and top performing customer service in the medical supply industry. Medical Shipment looks forward to providing simulation champions with more information on innovative products that will maximize efficiency throughout clinics nationwide. This HealthySimulation.com article will discuss the BD Alaris Infusion System devices supplied by Medical Shipment.

Why is IV Medication Administration and Use of IV Pump Important in Nursing Education?

In 2020 a systematic review of IV medication errors was conducted in the UK finding an average of 101 IV medication errors per 1000 administrations. This is a 10.1% error rate which is unacceptable. IV medication administration errors have the highest potential for complications due to absorption directly into the bloodstream. IV medication errors lead to increased costs and longer hospitalizations and can increase morbidity and mortality. These complications include cardiovascular and pulmonary alterations and anaphylaxis.

The skills of IV medication preparation and administration require a higher level of critical thinking. The most common IV administration errors include the wrong rate, miscalculation of medication dose, and incompatibility of solvents or medications. A systematic review found around the safe use of high concentrations or high-risk medication, drug calculations, and double-check verifications. IV pumps are involved in about 40% in IV medication errors.

IV medication dose errors in medication administration is one of many components leading to the high error rate for IV medications. The leading causes of these errors were failure to reprogram the pump when starting a replacement infusion, wrong infusion rate due to program calculation error, and programming pump variable error (bolus, timed infusion, etc.).

Intravenous medication administration is a multi-step process that involves specific administration devices, information systems and many healthcare professionals with different work tasks and skills. Systematic safety measures are imperative as a defense to help prevent IV medication administration errors. Some systemic errors include mistakes between similar drug names, lack of medication processes such as smart infusion pumps, and psychomotor skills related to drug calculation and IV pump programming.

These skills and critical thinking are taught in nursing school. However, some nursing programs use IV pumps that are decommissioned, old, or static images of an IV pump. These pumps or lack thereof, may not have the ability to calculate the dosage of IV continuous infusion medications or bolus for safe patient care. Older IV pumps may not have a current list of medications and dosages or do not have the capability to calculate the medication dosage and rates. This is why Alaris IV Pumps can be a solution to this problem.

For educators to effectively run medical simulation scenarios worldwide, they must be able to locate and ascertain the necessary healthcare simulation-based products and resources. In response, the company Medical Shipment emphasizes providing these medical supplies and premium equipment to help support the future of medicine. To specifically support nursing learners and educators, the company recently released a new Nursing Kit Catalog – containing an extensive range of products and services. This HealthySimulation.com article shares more about Medical Shipment’s Nursing Kit Catalog.

A Message from Medical Shipment Founder and CEO – Dan Micic

“Medical Shipment started with an ambitious idea to revolutionize the healthcare industry! The guidance and insight from nurse educators opened my eyes to the world of nursing education. I immediately connected to the value of supplying medical students and healthcare professionals with premium equipment to aid the future of medicine. Over the past 11 years, Medical Shipment has actively prioritized customer service and satisfaction above all, and our growth as a company is only a reflection of our dedication.”

“Nurses play a vital role in the future of all our lives, and their dedication and hard work is inspiring. By offering state-of-the-art tools, product insight, and time-saving shopping, Medical Shipment enables future nurses to focus on their education with the tools they need to succeed.”

View the HealthySimulation.com LEARN CE/CME Platform Webinar Custom Clinical Student Kits From Medical Shipment Can Meet Your Exact Educational Needs to learn more!

Overall, the Nursing Kit Catalog was created with guidance and insight from nurse educators, who relayed what they look for when selecting state-of-the-art tools and how time-saving shopping could better assist them. To ensure customers can find products that fit the needs of their educational and medical programs, Medical Shipment’s supply experts remain available to provide personalized services and ensure customer satisfaction. Plus, Medical Shipment extends a minimum one-year warranty on all equipment to guarantee successful use and better learning outcomes.

Customizing a Nursing Kit

When nursing simulation educators pursue acquiring a Nursing Kit from Medical Shipment, the catalog will prompt them to complete three steps. The first step is to select their bag, choose kit contents, and then send Medical Shipment their finalized list of desired products. Products available are broken down into several categories, including bags, accessories, diagnostics, gloves, infusion, patient care, respiratory, PPE, syringes and needles, and practice meds. Below are examples of products found under each category.

One year ago, in December 2016, the Food and Drug Administration banned the sale or use of powdered gloves in the United States. While this decision was not the only medical device banned by the FDA (they also banned prosthetic hair fibers in 1983), it was somewhat historic in the fact that powdered gloves are only the second device to be banned in the agency’s history.

The background of the ban
It took approximately nine months to take the powdered glove ban from suggestion to official. During that time, the FDA heard many reasons why powdered gloves should be taken off the market in America. Fine powder in the gloves was meant to make the gloves slide on easily and without ripping. However, that fine powder was also becoming airborne and causing some allergic reactions for patients across the country.

Beyond the allergy concerns, powdered gloves usage has also been linked to increased risk of wound inflammation in patients. Further, powdered glove use has been shown to increase the risk of scar tissue bands between organs after surgery.

There was certainly worry from the medical field after the ban was announced. Most were worried about a glove shortage, while others worried that gloves would be more difficult to get on and off in a timely manner. In an industry where every second counts, slipping on a glove can mean life and death.

One year later

Fortunately, medical technology has allowed for practitioners to find powder-free gloves that are still easy to get on and off. Thanks to polymers and other lining in a variety of glove material options, the powder that was causing medical concerns is no longer a concern to patients or to practitioners.

If you are looking for gloves that meet the FDA regulation, and that your students can use without fear of pulling or tearing, take a look at the offerings we have at Medical Shipment. Each of our glove options meet all FDA requirements and are available in a variety of sizes, materials, and prices.

Give us a call to talk more about your specific classroom or clinical needs; we are happy to help!

This year’s influenza season has been especially dangerous. According to the Centers for Disease Control, most of the country is experiencing widespread and intense activity. Vulnerable populations, such as small children and older adults, continue to be a concern; however, this season’s flu has also been deadly for otherwise healthy individuals.

You may be noticing repercussions of this active flu season in your classroom or lab. In fact, some schools throughout the country have chosen to close down for a designated timeframe due to widespread illness. As you work with your students, here are a few things to remember when it comes to preventing, and teaching, about the flu.

Review your handwashing procedures
It is always a good time to reeducate students about the importance of proper handwashing. Have students lead demonstrations, and double check your supplies to assure you have all you need for a clean classroom. Finally, update your handwashing signage throughout your classroom, lab, and building.

Review infection control
Infection control procedures are crucial for students to keep top of mind. Students can lead small group discussions and demonstrations of proper ways to use PPE. Work on case studies to determine what types of PPE and infection control protocol is warranted in each case. While you are preparing, double check your current stock of PPE such as gloves and masks, ordering more when necessary.

Talk about vaccines and detection
The flu shot is an important defense against the virus, and even students who have not received it yet are not too late to protect themselves. Learn more about the vaccine while practicing proper technique.

Finally, take time to review – and practice – proper influenza detection. Our kits are priced right for your budget and give your students the materials they need to practice serving their patients.

This flu season, continue to practice good prevention for yourself while using this especially harsh season for reeducation of your students. Just a few more months until spring, when we can take a break from flu talk until next year!

While the latest reports are showing that this year’s influenza season has finally peaked, epidemiologists are predicting that the virus will continue to stick around until mid-April. It certainly has been a dangerous influenza season, and most medical professionals are happy to hear that it has peaked. With the Centers for Disease Controlreporting 94 pediatric deaths due to influenza complications as of the end of February, it is wise for clinical teachers to take time to reflect on the lessons we can learn – and teach – from this year’s influenza season.

As you are working with your students in the lab and in clinical settings, will you be taking time in your busy curriculum to discuss this year’s deadly influenza season? It could be a wise use of your time to have a roundtable conversation with your students, giving them the chance to learn statistics from this year and how they can keep themselves, as well as their patients, safe.

Review Infection Control Best Practices
This year’s influenza virus caused many hospitals, urgent cares, and physician offices to reevaluate infection control protocols to keep patients and professionals safe. Review infection control practices with your students, as well as discuss what it might look like in different clinical settings during times of high influenza outbreaks.

Review When to Stay Home
Many people who were feeling ill from influenza were transmitting the virus by coming into work or school while they were still contagious. Take time to review safe protocols with your students, especially focusing on healthy choices when they become caregivers in medical agencies. Tackle the tough situations like coming in when you are sick because you know your co-workers are working short staffed. These are wonderful discussion starters that can lead to productive and practical conversations.

Review Vaccine Effectiveness and Myths
This year’s flu vaccine was estimated at 30% effective. Review how the vaccines are made each year, and with what information, as well as how effectiveness is determined. Finally, open a conversation about how to spread reliable information about the vaccine and how to educate patients who believe that the influenza vaccine gives them the flu.

As you are having these conversations and learning opportunities with your students, be sure that your clinical lab is stocked with all the supplies you need to make your time together more interactive. Medical Shipment has everything you need for an interactive and educational classroom.