*Corresponding Author: Young Mee Kim, seoulymk@nsu.ac.kr
Patient identification (ID) errors occurring during medication administration process can be fatal. Thus, the aim of this study was to identify the effectiveness of a quality improvement (QI) project to improve the patient ID behavior of nurses during the medication administration process.
This study adopted a quasi-experimental design. More than a thousand nurses participated in the QI project at a university hospital in Seoul Korea. Eighty-six nurses (from 70 nursing units) were chosen as “Patient Safety (PS) Keepers” to take the lead in fostering medication safety. Ten strategies to improve nurses’ compliance for patient ID were conducted. The patient ID behavior of nurses was quantified using mean ± SD values, and differences between the pre-and post-test scores were analyzed using the t-test.
The scores for patient ID behavior were significantly increased from 4.41 ± 0.49 in the pre-test group to 4.55 ± 0.51 (out of 5) in the post-test group (t =-6.548, p < 0.001). The patient ID behavior of nurses was improved by the implementation of strategies. This finding has implications for nurse training and for the development of strategies leading to nurses’ behavioral changes during medication administration.
After this QI project, nurses’ patient ID behavior was designated as an annual performance indicator in this hospital. The PS keeper initiative is quite applicable in nursing departments and can be a useful strategy to encourage nurses to actively participate in QI.
Medication administration, patient identification, patient safety, nurse, behavior
