ABSTRACT

Objective

This study was conducted as a descriptive study in order to investigate the knowledge and administrations of nurses working in adult intensive care units on high-alert medication administrations.

Methods

The study was conducted between May and September 2019 at a University Hospital in İzmir. The sample of the study consisted of 105 intensive care nurses. Individual Identification Form, Question Form of Description in Knowledge Levels of Nurses about High Alert Medication and Question Form of Description in Administrations of Nurses about High Alert Medication were used for collecting the datas. The data were analyzed by Mann-Whitney U, Kruskal-Wallis and Spearman’s correlation. Written permission was obtained from the ethics committee and the institution where the research was conducted.

Results

The mean age of the nurses was 32.31±5.947 years, 89.5% were female, 96.2% were undergraduate and 33.3% of the nurses worked in internal intensive care unit. Rates of nurses responding correctly to statements about high-risk drugs; it is between 17.1% and 85.7%, and the overall mean score is 42±27.33. The correct response rates of nurses with the administration of high-risk drugs range from 30.5% to 100%, and the overall score average is 75.29±14.77. The knowledge level of male nurses was found to be higher. It was determined that the intensive care unit in which the nurses worked affected the knowledge level and the administration of drugs. It was determined that there was a moderate and positive significant relationship between the knowledge and practice scores of the nurses.

Conclusion

The results of the study showed that the level of knowledge of nurses about high-risk drugs was quite low, their scores about the administration of drugs were above the average, and as the score of knowledge about high-risk drugs increased, the application score also increased.