Medication reconciliation in pediatrics: a validation of instruments to prevent medication errors

Area of Science:

• Pediatric healthcare
• Patient safety
• Medication management

Background:

• Medication reconciliation is crucial during care transitions to prevent errors.
• Effective tools are needed to support medication reconciliation for hospitalized children.
• Current methods may lack comprehensive support for families and healthcare professionals.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate content for two instruments.
• To promote medication reconciliation during the transition of care for hospitalized children.
• To ensure instruments are suitable for both families and healthcare professionals.

Main Methods:

• Methodological study using a five-stage approach.
• Scope review for conceptual framework, followed by instrument elaboration.
• Content validation via Delphi technique with specialists, achieving a content validity index (CVI) of at least 0.80.

Main Results:

• Three evaluation rounds were required to achieve the target CVI.
• The instrument for families achieved a CVI of 0.93.
• The instrument for healthcare professionals achieved a CVI of 0.90.

Conclusions:

• Two instruments for medication reconciliation were successfully validated.
• These validated instruments are ready for implementation studies.
• Future research will assess their impact on medication safety during care transitions.