A study to assess the impact of clinical pharmacist intervention on administration of selected antimicrobials by nurses in a tertiary care hospital in south India

Abstract

Reconstitution of injectable antimicrobials, storage after reconstitution and dilutions by nurses are very important as errors in these processes can not only lead to negative outcomes of treatment but also promote the development of antimicrobial resistance. Our study aimed to analyze the impact of clinical pharmacist intervention on the administration of selected antimicrobials by nurses. One-group pre-test post-test experimental study was conducted for a 6 month period among nursing professionals in a tertiary care hospital using a validated KAP questionnaire comprising questions to assess knowledge, practice and attitude level of the respective nurses regarding selected antimicrobials. Study population comprised of 106 nurses. Majority (54.7%) were Diploma holders and rest degree holders in nursing. On analyzing the years of experience of study sample, it was found that majority had 1-5 years' experience (61.3%) followed by 5-10 years (23.6%) and least percentage had experience for more than 15 years. Pre-test value shown that most of the nurses had poor score in knowledge, average score in attitude and excellent score in practice domains related to the antimicrobials studied. After clinical pharmacist intervention, there was a statistically significant improvement in all the three domains (p < 0.001). But there was no association with the selected variables like educational level or years of experience (P > 0.05). The study highlighted the importance of continue education programs for the nurses related to antimicrobials by clinical pharmacists as there were a statistically significant improvement in all three domains after intervention irrespective of educational background or years of experience.