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Original research
Factors influencing paediatric nurses' responses to medication administration
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  1. Leigh Davis1,
  2. Robert S Ware2,3,
  3. Damhnat McCann4,
  4. Samantha Keogh5,
  5. Karen Watson5
  1. 1School of Nursing, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia
  2. 2School of Population Health, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia
  3. 3Queensland Children's Medical Research Institute, Brisbane, Australia
  4. 4School of Nursing & Midwifery, University of Tasmania, Launceston, Australia
  5. 5Brisbane Royal Children's Hospital, Brisbane, Australia
  1. Correspondence to Dr Robert S Ware, School of Population Health, The University of Queensland, Herston Road, Herston, QLD 4006, Australia; r.ware{at}uq.edu.au

Abstract

Objective To evaluate the importance of contextual and policy factors on nurses' judgement about medication administration practice.

Design A questionnaire survey of responses to a number of factorial vignettes in June 2004. These vignettes considered a combination of seven contextual and policy factors that were thought to influence nurses' judgements relating to medication administration.

Participants 185 (67% of eligible) clinical paediatric nursing staff returned completed questionnaires.

Setting A tertiary paediatric hospital in Brisbane, Australia.

Results Double checking the patient, double checking the drug and checking the legality of the prescription were the three strongest predictors of nurses' actions regarding medication administration.

Conclusions Policy factors, and not contextual factors, drive nurses' judgement in response to hypothetical scenarios.

  • Medication errors
  • questionnaires
  • paediatric nursing
  • factorial vignettes
  • nurses

https://doi.org/10.1136/qshc.2008.028852

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    Footnotes

    • Competing interests None.

    • Ethics approval Ethics approval was provided by the Brisbane Royal Children's Hospital, Brisbane, Australia.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.