Deliberate Practice of Hand Hygiene and Patient Identification During Simulated Medication Administration: A...

Area of Science:

• Nursing Education
• Patient Safety
• Simulation-Based Learning

Background:

• Prelicensure nursing students frequently exhibit noncompliance with critical patient safety procedures during medication administration.
• Foundational patient safety practices are essential for preventing errors and ensuring patient well-being.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the impact of deliberate practice on nursing students' compliance with hand hygiene and patient identification.
• To assess the effectiveness of a structured practice method in improving adherence to safety protocols during simulated medication administration.

Main Methods:

• A quasi-experimental, repeated-measures design involving 60 prelicensure nursing students across 4 nursing schools.
• Students completed 8 simulated medication administration scenarios over 2 semesters with deliberate practice sessions after each simulation.
• Compliance data were collected using the Observational Medication Administration Tool and analyzed with Generalized Estimating Equations.

Main Results:

• Hand hygiene compliance increased from 17% at baseline to 59% by the final assessment.
• Patient identification compliance improved substantially from 47% at baseline to 90% at the final assessment.
• Both improvements were statistically significant (P <.001) across all assessment points.

Conclusions:

• Deliberate practice is an effective strategy for enhancing nursing students' compliance with essential patient safety procedures like hand hygiene and patient identification.
• Reinforcing foundational safety practices through methods like deliberate practice is crucial for nursing education and improved patient outcomes.