Abstract

Medication administration is a critical phase of patient care where errors are most likely to occur, often contributing to adverse drug events and increasing risk to patient safety. At the same time, rising levels of nurse burnout highlight the growing cognitive demands placed on healthcare professionals. Although systems such as medication carts, digital records, and safety protocols are intended to reduce errors, they operate independently rather than as a connected system. This leaves nurses responsible for connecting each step, relying on memory and constant adjustment throughout the workflow. This thesis focuses on the medication administration phase and looks at how the lack of system integration increases cognitive load and contributes to error. It proposes Vectra, a medication cart designed to act as a central system that connects patient information, medication organization, and guided workflow actions into a continuous process. By aligning how information is accessed, how medications are organized, and how tasks are carried out, the design reduces the need for interpretation and supports a more direct workflow. The resulting system allows medication administration, a series of disconnected steps, into a more connected and guided process, with the potential to reduce cognitive load, improve efficiency, and improve patient safety in clinical environments.

Publication Date

5-2026

Document Type

Thesis

Student Type

Graduate

Degree Name

Industrial Design (MFA)

College

College of Art and Design

Advisor

Marissa Tirone,

Advisor/Committee Member

Juan Noguera

Advisor/Committee Member

Stan Rickel

Campus

RIT – Main Campus

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