Nurses' attitudes toward pharmaceutical services before and after decentralization

Nurses' attitudes toward the quality of pharmaceutical services were assessed before and after the implementation of decentralized pharmaceutical services at a tertiary-care teaching hospital complex. The same multiple-choice questionnaire was distributed to nurses at the University of Michigan Hospitals 18 months before decentralized services were implemented (November 1982) and again after two satellite pharmacies had been established and a clinical pharmacist had begun providing first-dose dispensing services using a movable medication cart (March 1985). The questionnaire measured nurses' satisfaction with aspects of pharmaceutical services most likely to be affected by decentralization of services (e.g., number of missing medications, accessibility of pharmacists). Nurses' overall satisfaction with pharmaceutical services increased only slightly after services were decentralized. Significant positive changes in nurses' satisfaction occurred in areas served by the satellite pharmacies and the clinical pharmacist; no significant change s in satisfaction occurred in the other areas. Nurses' perceptions of increased helpfulness of pharmacy personnel were a better predictor of increased satisfaction than were changes in the number of missing medications, waiting time for medication delivery, or number of incorrectly dispensed medications. Respondents remained anonymous; therefore, changes in personnel, rather than changed opinions of nurses, may account for the differences in responses between 1982 and 1985. Nurses' attitudes toward pharmaceutical services improved in areas of the hospital served by satellite pharmacies or by a clinical pharmacist using a movable medication cart.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)