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Factors influencing paediatric nurses' responses to medication administration
Leigh Davis1, Robert S Ware, Damhnat McCann
1School of Population Health, The University of Queensland, Herston Road, Herston, QLD 4006, Australia.
Objective:
To evaluate the importance of contextual and policy factors on nurses' judgement about medication administration practice.
Design:
A questionnaire survey of responses to a number of factorial vignettes in June 2004. These vignettes considered a combination of seven contextual and policy factors that were thought to influence nurses' judgements relating to medication administration.
Participants:
185 (67% of eligible) clinical paediatric nursing staff returned completed questionnaires.
Setting:
A tertiary paediatric hospital in Brisbane, Australia.
Results:
Double checking the patient, double checking the drug and checking the legality of the prescription were the three strongest predictors of nurses' actions regarding medication administration.
Conclusions:
Policy factors, and not contextual factors, drive nurses' judgement in response to hypothetical scenarios.
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