Nurses Knowledge and Practice in Dealing with High Alert Medications | ||
| Alexandria Scientific Nursing Journal | ||
| Volume 19, Issue 2, December 2017, Pages 1-24 PDF (356.07 K) | ||
| Document Type: Research articles | ||
| DOI: 10.21608/asalexu.2017.208348 | ||
| Authors | ||
| Abeer Abdalhamid Abeer Mohammed Abdalhamid Farag1; Soheir Mostafa Eweda2; Naglaa Fathalla Elsayed2 | ||
| 1Medical Surgical Nursing, Alexandria University | ||
| 2Medical Surgical Nursing, Faculty of Nursing, Alexandria University | ||
| Abstract | ||
| High-Alert Medications (HAMs) are medications that are most likely to cause significant harm to the patient, even when used as intended. The three most common causes of death are improper dose, wrong drug, and wrong route of administration. Objective: Assess nurse’s knowledge and practice in dealing with high alert medications. Setting: The study was conducted at general medical and surgical units at Alexandria Main University Hospital. Subjects: 167 nurses who were involved in direct patient care and responsible for administering medications. Tools: Two tools were used to elicit the necessary data; nurse’s practice in dealing with HAMs observational check list, and nurse’s knowledge in dealing with HAMs questionnaire. Results: The mean scores and the mean percentage for nurses’ knowledge and practice related to medications as general, insulin, opioids, sedatives and anticoagulants were utilized. It was observed that the mean score for practice related to HAMs in general were (23.02±2.50) and (39.70±4.30) as the mean percentage, and level of the nurses’ practice was satisfactory ≤75% or unsatisfactory ≥70%. Regarding the 5 main items it was observed that practice in general were unsatisfactory (100.0 %).Nurse’s knowledge related to insulin, opioids, sedatives and anticoagulants had a mean score of (10.47±1.57) with a mean percentage of (74.81±11.22). Conclusion: There is a gap between nurses' knowledge and practice as compared to the standard guidelines about high alert medications administration. Knowledge level for all nurses was unsatisfactory in total and a subtotal area with a lot of wrong information’s which might lead to hazardous practice and dangerous complications. The practice total score was unsatisfactory. Recommendations: A list of high-alert medications and medication safety policies and procedures are strongly needed and emphasized. | ||
| Keywords | ||
| High alert medications; Adverse drug events; Safe medication practice; Medication errors | ||
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