Medication compliance protocol for pediatric patients with severe intellectual and behavioral disabilities

Area of Science:

• Pediatric Nursing
• Behavioral Health
• Intellectual Disabilities

Background:

• Patient medication refusal and noncompliance are common challenges in pediatric care.
• Administering medications to children with severe intellectual and behavioral disabilities presents unique difficulties.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and implement a medication compliance protocol for an inpatient unit of children with severe intellectual and behavioral disabilities.
• To improve medication administration success rates in this challenging patient population.

Main Methods:

• Registered nurses (RNs) on an inpatient unit devised a specific protocol for medication administration.
• The protocol was implemented with a small group of six pediatric patients diagnosed with severe intellectual and behavioral disabilities.

Main Results:

• The initial implementation of the medication compliance protocol achieved an 83.3% success rate.
• This positive outcome was observed over a 4-week period with the six participating patients.

Conclusions:

• Consistent application of the developed medication compliance protocol led to positive outcomes in medication administration.
• Despite the small sample size, the protocol demonstrated effectiveness in improving medication compliance for pediatric patients with severe intellectual and behavioral disabilities.