Abstract
BackgroundMedication errors (MEs) are unintended failures in the drug treatment process that can occur during prescription, dispensing, storing, preparation or administration of medications. High alert medications (HAMs) are defined as those medications that bear the highest risk of causing significant patient harm when used incorrectly, either due to their serious adverse events or to a narrow therapeutic window. Nurses are responsible for administration of HAMs; incorrect administration can have a significant clinical outcome. This study aimed to assess the level of knowledge of HAMs among nurses in government hospitals in West Bank, Palestine.MethodsA cross-sectional study was conducted in 2015, in West Bank, Palestine. Data were collected via a face to face interview questionnaire, which was taken from a previous study. Data were collected by convenient sampling. The questionnaire consisted of four parts: demographic characteristics of the nurses, drug administration knowledge (10 true-false questions), drug regulation knowledge (10 true-false questions), and self-evaluation.ResultsA total of 280 nurses participated in the study; these nurses were working in the emergency room (ER), intensive care unit (ICU), paediatric or medical ward. The response rate was 93%. Nurses were found to have insufficient knowledge about HAMs; 67.1% of participants had a score of less than 70%, with a mean total score of 59.9 ± 15.1. Factors associated with sufficient knowledge among nurses were HAMs training and ICU training, both with p-values of 0.002. Nurses with a master degree, those working in the ICU ward, head nurses, and male nurses were the most knowledgeable groups, with a p-values < 0.001. 81.8% of respondents hoped to obtain additional training. The leading obstacles reported were inconsistent opinions between doctors and nurses (37.9%), and no established standard operating procedure for HAMs (37.1%).ConclusionsLack of knowledge was one of the obstacles that nurses encountered during administration of HAMs which might result in MEs. Nurses reported that they would like to have additional training to update their pharmacology knowledge. Nurses could benefit from additional continuing education and training programs.
Highlights
Medication errors (MEs) are unintended failures in the drug treatment process that can occur during prescription, dispensing, storing, preparation or administration of medications
In total, 301 nurses who were working in the included wards (ER, intensive care unit (ICU), paediatric and medical) in seven governmental hospitals were approached to participate
Seventy-one (25.4%) of the nurses included in the study were from the ICU, 62 (22.1%) were from the emergency room (ER), 75 (26.8%) were from the paediatric ward and 72 (25.7%) were from the medical ward
Summary
Medication errors (MEs) are unintended failures in the drug treatment process that can occur during prescription, dispensing, storing, preparation or administration of medications. Nurses are responsible for administration of HAMs; incorrect administration can have a significant clinical outcome. Nurses are responsible for administration of HAMs; incorrect administration can have a significant clinical outcome, and at times can be fatal. A considerable amount of literature has been published on the pharmacology knowledge of nurses [5,6,7,8,9]. Overall, these studies highlight the need for more research to evaluate nurses’ knowledge of pharmacology for the purpose of drug administration [5,6,7,8,9,10]
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