Role of Head Nurses in Managing the Safety of High Alert Medications in Critical Care Units

Abstract

high-alert medication is a medication that bears a heightened risk of causing significant patient harm when used in error .Head nurses are responsible for managing and improving the safety of high alert medications within the critical care unit.  Nurses receive directions and cooperation with their head nurses to achieve this target. A total of 236 nurses were willing to participate in the descriptive cross-sectional study. The first aim of this study was to develop a new questionnaire to describe the role of head nurses towards the nurses during practices of the safety of high alert medications. A secondary aim was to identify the factors influencing these roles. The key results of this study were the establishment of the questionnaire to describe the head nurse role in managing the safety of high alert medications as a reliable and valid tool that can be used to assess nurses’ perception in this respect. Head nurses role in this study was generally mild. Evaluation role was lesser than management, patient care and supervision and development roles. These results can be attributed to a combination of factors, some related to an organizational system and the other to managerial factors.

Keywords: head nurses, role, high alert, medications