Patient self-medication--a change in hospital practice

Area of Science:

• Nursing
• Pharmacology
• Patient Self-Management

Background:

• Self-medication is crucial for managing chronic illnesses.
• It allows patients to administer their own medications in hospitals after education, differing from traditional nurse-administered methods.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess the effectiveness of a self-medication programme (SMP) for inpatients.
• To evaluate patient knowledge, medication adherence, error rates, nursing efficiency, and satisfaction within the SMP.

Main Methods:

• A pilot study involving 220 patients over six months.
• The SMP featured three levels of supervised self-administration.
• Outcome measures included satisfaction, medication errors, nursing time, and patient progression through self-administration levels.

Main Results:

• 45% of patients stayed at level one (nurse-administered), 26% reached level two (direct supervision), and 29% reached level three (indirect supervision).
• No patient-initiated medication errors occurred.
• The SMP improved staff workload efficiency and nurses' perceived knowledge and patient education skills.

Conclusions:

• The self-medication programme effectively improved medication adherence in selected inpatients.
• Successful implementation requires collaboration among nurses, medical staff, pharmacists, patients, and carers.