Educational Strategies

Abu Hussein, I., ELSaied, N., &Ghandour, S. (2022). Effect of Patient Safety Program for Nurses on Medication Administration.Port Said Scientific Journal of Nursing, 9(3), 160–188. https://doi.org/10.21608/pssjn.2022.120647.1176

The above study is a quasi-experimental research that was conducted to determine the effect of patient safety training program on medication administration. The increased need for the promotion of safety in the administration of medications in nursing practice informed the need for this study. The researchers used staff nurses as their sample to understand the impact of an intervention where they were trained on best medication administration practices. The study results showed the existence of high statistically significant difference of total nurses’ skills, knowledge and attitude on patient safety and medication administration throughout the program phases. The significance was high post-program when compared to the pre-program phase.

The findings of this study have considerable implications to nursing practice and healthcare. First, institutions should support programs that increase nurses’ competencies on medication administration and management. Secondly, nurses’ knowledge, skills, and attitude influence their participation in quality improvement initiatives that address medication safety. Therefore, nurses can benefit from this study by proposing training programs in their practice to enhance their competencies in medication management processes. They can also use the knowledge gained from the study to develop procedures and guidelines that can be adopted in medication administration procedures to minimize errors.

Irajpour, A., Farzi, S., Saghaei, M., &Ravaghi, H. (2019).Effect of interprofessional education of medication safety program on the medication error of physicians and nurses in the intensive care units.Journal of Education and Health Promotion, 8, 196. https://doi.org/10.4103/jehp.jehp_200_19

The above article is a quasi-experimental study that was conducted to investigate the effect of inter-professional education of medication safety program on medication errors among nurses and physicians working in the intensive care units. The researchers noted that the increased prevalence of medication errors threaten the health and outcomes of the hospitalized patients. The researchers recruited 50 participants comprising nurses, physicians, and pharmacists for the study. The study results showed that the educational program resulted in the reduction in the reduction in medication error rate post-intervention. The education program also improves patient care and inter-professional collaboration among the caregivers. It also increases the provider awareness level about the use of best practices that promote safety in the use of medications in nursing practice. Nurses can use the article to strengthen medication use safety through interventions such as inter-professional collaboration. The article can also inform quality improvement interventions such as provider training to increase their competencies on issues related to medication safety.

Manias, E., Kusljic, S., & Wu, A. (2020). Interventions to reduce medication errors in adult medical and surgical settings: A systematic review. Therapeutic Advances in Drug Safety, 11, 2042098620968309.

The above study is a systematic review that was conducted to investigate interventions to reduce medication errors in adult surgical and medical settings. The focus was on the effect of different interventions on reducing dispensing, prescribing, and administration medication errors in acute care settings. The researchers undertook a search of relevant literature on databases that included MEDLINE, EMBASE, PsychINFO, CINAHL, and Cochrane database of systematic reviews. The study utilized 34 articles, which revealed the effectiveness of different interventions in reducing or minimizing medication errors. The results demonstrated that prescriber education was among the most effective interventions utilized to address medication errors. The combination of prescriber education with other interventions such as computerized medication reconciliation, pharmacist partnership, automated systems of medication administration, and medication reconciliation by trained mentors resulted in significant improvements in medication errors. Nurses can benefit from this article by combining the different interventions into their practice to promote safety in medications management. They can also incorporate them into their existing systems and practices to improve patient outcomes.