Validation of a questionnaire for ICU nurses to assess knowledge, attitudes and behaviours towards medication errors

Medication errors are dangerous for the patients in an intensive care unit (ICU). Little is known about knowledge, attitudes and professional behaviour of nurses towards prevention of errors and clinical risk management can reduce errors during the preparation and administration phases of intravenous drugs. In this study we have evaluated the reliability and validity of the questionnaire to examine knowledge, attitudes and professional behaviour of ICU nurses.

Reliability analysis was tested and content validity evaluated using Cronbach's alpha to check internal consistency with the intention to obtain no misunderstanding with the results. The questionnaire composed of seven sections for a total of 36 items, was administrated among ICU nurses working in a university hospital in Rome, Italy. Data were collected in October 2015. Statistical analysis was performed with the statistical software for Windows SPSS, version 22.0.

The questionnaire was administered to 30 ICU nurses' in anonymous, voluntary and self-administered form with close-ended type of questions, except for the socio-demographic characteristics. The highest value of Cronbach's alpha resulted on 19 items (alpha= 0,776) meaning that the questionnaire has a satisfactory internal validity. The study highlights that nurses (80%) are aware that appropriate knowledge on the calculation of medication's dose is essential to reduce medication errors during the phase of drugs'preparation.

This study demonstrated that a short version of the questionnaire has very good reliability properties in the study and this needs to be taken into account for future studies.