Medication Safety Competence of Undergraduate Nursing Students

Abstract

BackgroundPatient medication administration is one of the major responsibilities of the professional nurse. Prelicensure nursing students and new nursing graduates often lack competency to safely administer medications. MethodThis was a descriptive comparative design of 98 junior and 90 senior baccalaureate nursing students using the Medication Administration Safety Assessment Tool via observation during simulation. ResultsIndependent samples t-tests comparing medication safety competency revealed 29.6% of juniors and 14.4% of seniors demonstrated competence on all eight Medication Administration Safety Assessment Tool checklist items. Seniors did not demonstrate greater medication safety competence than juniors on total scores. ConclusionsStudy findings can guide undergraduate curriculum planning to improve medication safety competencies in nursing students.