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Nurses' knowledge of high-alert medications: instrument development and validation
Ghi-Yin Hsaio1, I-Ju Chen, Shu Yu
1Department of Nursing, Chang Gung Institute of Technology, Taoyuan, Taiwan.
Journal of Advanced Nursing
|April 29, 2010
Summary
Nurses demonstrate insufficient knowledge of high-alert medications, leading to administration errors. Additional education is crucial, especially for intravenous bolus administration, to improve patient safety and reduce medication errors.
Area of Science:
- Nursing Practice
- Medication Safety
- Health Professions Education
Background:
- Medication administration errors by nurses can have severe consequences, particularly with high-alert medications.
- Insufficient nurse knowledge is a significant contributing factor to these errors.
- Ensuring adequate knowledge of high-alert medications is vital for patient safety.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop and validate an instrument to assess nurses' knowledge of high-alert medications.
- To analyze the types and frequency of medication administration errors related to high-alert drugs.
- To identify areas for targeted nursing education interventions.
Main Methods:
- A cross-sectional study utilizing a questionnaire developed from literature review and expert input.
- The questionnaire was validated through expert review and two pilot studies.
- Data collection involved snowball sampling and descriptive statistics from 305 participating nurses.
Main Results:
- The validated questionnaire demonstrated reliability and validity.
- Nurses achieved a 56.5% correct answer rate on high-alert medication knowledge questions.
- Only 3.6% of nurses felt knowledgeable, with 75.4% citing insufficient knowledge as an obstacle; 184 errors were reported, including wrong drug and dose.
Conclusions:
- The developed instrument is a valid and reliable tool for assessing nurses' knowledge of high-alert medications.
- Study findings indicate a significant gap in nurses' knowledge, necessitating enhanced educational strategies.
- Targeted education, especially concerning intravenous bolus administration of high-alert medications, is recommended to improve practice and patient outcomes.
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