Abstract
The administration of medicines is a well-known risk factor associated with patient safety. Handling medicines is a routine daily activity for nurses.
As such, nurses need to know basic information about how medicines are administered, as well as medicine storage, labeling, security, documentation, and how to dispose of unused medicines. As part of a standardized, controlled interview, we examined the knowledge base of nurses relative to the items list above.
We also examined daily routines and habits relative to this topic. Our sample consisted of 1,202 nurses, who were representative of nurses in health care facilities, in terms of region and age, in the Czech Republic.
The sample included nurses from a variety of hospital types. Most nurses (67.5%) reported that in their workplaces, doctors were only allowed to verbally-prescribe drugs under special circumstances.
Roughly the same percentage of nurses were able to correctly identify the risk categories of drugs. However, only 10% of nurses knew the correct temperature for drug storage.
A majority (64.9%) regularly checked drug expiration dates (once a week). Most nurses (72.6%) reported that they never prepared medications taken multiple times per day, in advance.
Based on the results of our survey, nurses have a good understanding of how to handle and dispense medication; nonetheless, we found considerable room for improvement. Proper drug handling and administration are critically important for patient safety, and any omission or failure in these protocols can have serious or even fatal consequences.