The NUPHAC-EU Framework for Nurses' Role in Interprofessional Pharmaceutical Care: Cross-Sectional Evaluation in Europe.

Elyne De Baetselier ,Luís Manuel Cunha Batalha ,Manuel Lillo Crespo ,Jana Rottková ,Jana Heczková ,Dorina Pusztai ,László Bence Raposa ,Izabela Filov ,Francesco Talarico ,Hana Padyšáková ,Nienke E Dijkstra ,Vigdis Abrahamsen Grøndahl ,Petros Kolovos ,Gero Langer ,Ann Karin Helgesen ,Bart Van Rompaey ,Sabina Ličen ,Mirko Prosen ,Maria I D Fernandez ,Jorge Riquelme-Galindo ,Sarah Keeley ,Styliani Tziaferi ,Alba Malara ,Kevin Akerman ,Carolien Sino ,Tinne Dilles

doi:10.3390/ijerph18157862

Abstract

Clear role descriptions promote the quality of interprofessional collaboration. Currently, it is unclear to what extent healthcare professionals consider pharmaceutical care (PC) activities to be nurses’ responsibility in order to obtain best care quality. This study aimed to create and evaluate a framework describing potential nursing tasks in PC and to investigate nurses’ level of responsibility. A framework of PC tasks and contextual factors was developed based on literature review and previous DeMoPhaC project results. Tasks and context were cross-sectionally evaluated using an online survey in 14 European countries. A total of 923 nurses, 240 physicians and 199 pharmacists responded. The majority would consider nurses responsible for tasks within: medication self-management (86–97%), patient education (85–96%), medication safety (83–95%), monitoring adherence (82–97%), care coordination (82–95%), and drug monitoring (78–96%). The most prevalent level of responsibility was ‘with shared responsibility’. Prescription management tasks were considered to be nurses’ responsibility by 48–81% of the professionals. All contextual factors were indicated as being relevant for nurses’ role in PC by at least 74% of the participants. No task nor contextual factor was removed from the framework after evaluation. This framework can be used to enable healthcare professionals to openly discuss allocation of specific (shared) responsibilities and tasks.

Highlights

Patient safety is an important global health concern
The family and the informal caregivers, the interprofessional team, consisting of physicians, nurses, pharmacists and other healthcare professionals, communicates and collaborates in order to obtain the best quality of care and patient outcomes
This study aimed to evaluate to what extent physicians, pharmacists and nurses from 14 European countries considered pharmaceutical care (PC)-related tasks beyond preparation and administration of medicines to be nurses’ responsibility in an ideal healthcare situation with the best quality of interprofessional care and patient outcomes

Summary

Introduction

Patient safety is an important global health concern. More than twenty years after the publication of the Institute of Medicine’s report To Err is Human, serious efforts have been undertaken to decrease the number of medication errors [1,2,3,4,5,6]. In 2017, the World Health Organization’s (WHO) third “Global Patient Safety Challenge on Medication Safety” invited WHO Member States to prioritize medication safety at the national level. The target was to reduce severe, avoidable harm resulting from errors or unsafe practices due to weaknesses in health systems by 50% by 2022. The success of this Challenge will depend on the high prioritization of medication safety within healthcare systems globally [7]

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Conclusion