The Digital Drag and Drop Pillbox: Design and Feasibility of a Skill-based Education Model to Improve Medication Management.
Bradi B Granger, Susan C Locke, Margaret Bowers and 5 others
PMID 28282304WHAT IT FOUND
Nurses using an e-tablet pillbox taught heart failure patients to manage medications; 98% accurately completed medication management skills by discharge.
Feasibility and usability were acceptable, but this pilot did not test whether medication adherence improved.
Key findings
01By discharge, 98% of patients accurately completed the medication management skills, regardless of health literacy level.
02Patient-reported feasibility and usability of the e-tablet application were acceptable across all domains.
03Only 25% of patients correctly answered 4 of 4 posttest medication questions on the first try.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
Only 25 patients agreed to participate, and one had incomplete data and was not used for analysis. The study was a single-group feasibility pilot with no comparison group, so it cannot show that the pillbox caused skill completion. The intervention included nurse-led medication reconciliation, teach-back, pill images, and repeated practice, so the contribution of any single component cannot be separated. Change over time in learning outcome was not assessed. Generalizability is limited by the small number of patients with heart failure and the specific EHR configuration.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that the pillbox alone improves medication management. The process also included nurse-led medication reconciliation, teach-back, pill images, and repeated practice, and this pilot did not compare those components.