الفهرس | Only 14 pages are availabe for public view |
Abstract Background: Medication administration is one of the most important duties of nurses. It requires a particular set of knowledge and practice. Medication errors are potentially more harmful and have a higher incidence rate in pediatric than adult population. More errors occur in the intensive care unit. Nurses play a major role in reducing medication errors. They are the first line of the defense to safeguard against medication errors. Aim of this study was to determine the effect of implementing practice guidelines regarding medication administration iatrogenic events on nurses’performance at Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.Subjects and Method: a quasi-experiment design was used. All nurses working in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit of El-Mabarra hospital were included (50nurses). Two tools were used to collect data; Structured questionnaire schedule to assess nurses’ knowledge (tool I) and observational checklists to assess nurses’ performance regarding medication administration (tool II).Results: the study revealed that, before practice guidelines the total knowledge scores of all nurses were poor. While all of them (100%) had good score immediately and 70% after three months of implementing practice guidelines. Total practice score for all nurses were good immediately and 50% after three months. Conclusion: The practice guidelines program was effective in improving nurses’ knowledge and their practice as well as reducing medication administration errors.Recommendations were suggested: Establish a system to evaluate nurses’ knowledge and practice periodically regarding medication administration in pediatric care settings, Continuous in–service training programs for updating the knowledge and practice of nurses working in NICU and Incident report about committed medication errors should be applying in NICU. |