Long-Term Care Around the GlobeMedication Administration in Nursing Homes: Pharmacists' Contribution to Error Prevention
Section snippets
Study Design
A 1-month before-and-after study was performed, which compared outcome measurements 1 month before and 1 month after implementation of a formal training session on “good medication administration principles” in 2 nursing homes. The study was conducted between March 2007 and June 2007 and was performed in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki and Good Clinical Practice guidelines. All nursing staff members involved in medication administration procedures at the 2 nursing homes were invited
Characteristics of the Sample
Each resident who received at least 1 medication in the 5-day observation period was included in the study (72 residents in NH1 and 27 residents in NH2). The mean age of the nurses was 35 years in NH1 and 45 years in NH2. The mean age of nursing aides was 31 years in NH1 and 30 years in NH2. Nurses had an average of 11 years of experience in NH1 and 22 years in NH2. For nursing aides, the mean experience was 7 years in NH1 and 12 years in NH2.
The residents in NH1 and NH2 had a mean age of 86.4
Discussion
Medication administration is a critically important nursing care responsibility in nursing homes. This feasibility study investigated the medication administration error rates before and after an educational session on good medication administration principles provided by a pharmacist to the entire nursing staff. We found that medication administration errors were quite common in the nursing home setting, but that relatively few observed errors resulted in a clinically significant effect. These
Conclusion
This study supports the assertion that medication administration is an important concern in nursing homes. Nursing home residents daily use a large amount of medications, for which they depend entirely on the nursing staff. Whenever medication administration errors occur, they seem to be of low clinical risk for the residents. However, an educational session on good medication administration provided by a pharmacist is an easy and accessible way to decrease medication administration error rates
Acknowledgment
The authors thank Pharm. Nele Verhaeghe for her valuable help during the data collection, as part of her Master's thesis.
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The authors have no conflicts of interest pertaining to this article.