Empowering frontline nurses: a structured intervention enables nurses to improve medication administration accuracy

Area of Science:

• Healthcare quality improvement
• Patient safety research
• Nursing leadership studies

Background:

• An 18-month Integrated Nurse Leadership Program involved seven San Francisco Bay Area hospitals.
• The program focused on enhancing medication administration reliability in medical/surgical inpatient units.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and deploy nurse leadership and process improvement skills.
• To improve the accuracy and reliability of medication administration.

Main Methods:

• Nurse-led project teams were formed at each hospital.
• Six key safety processes were implemented to improve medication administration accuracy.
• Processes included medication-to-record comparison, proper labeling, double patient identification, patient education, immediate charting, and minimizing distractions.

Main Results:

• Medication administration accuracy improved from 85% at baseline to 96% at 18 months.
• Completion of the six safety processes increased significantly, from 4.8 to 5.75 on a 0-6 scale.
• These improvements demonstrate enhanced patient care and safety.

Conclusions:

• Frontline nurses, with adequate training and resources, can effectively improve patient care and safety processes.
• Empowering nurses leads to better identification and resolution of issues in direct patient care.
• Sustainability plans involving ongoing monitoring and integration into organizational infrastructure are crucial for long-term success.