Factors influencing Quality Management of Medication by Nurses at Kenyatta National Hospital Paediatric Wards. Nairobi, Kenya.

Abstract

The main objective of this descriptive cross-sectional survey was to determine the factors influencing quality management of medication by nurses at Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH) paediatric medical wards. The study involved 80 nurses, 180 caretakers, four nurse managers and combined both qualitative and quantitative methods. Data gathering instruments included researcher administered questionnaires to a randomly sampled group of nurses and caretakers.

Quantitative data analysis was done using descriptive and inferential statistics while qualitative data was analyzed manually. High workload (90%), language barrier (56%), absence of paediatric formulations (55%), multiple tasks (21%), lack of support (20%) and limited physical space (19%) were the main challenges that nurses encountered during drug administration.  There was only one nurse (1.25%) trained in pediatric nursing. Analysis revealed an association between quality drug administration and number of years worked in paediatric wards (fisher’s exact p < 0.05) and the attendance of continuing medical education (CME) (Fishers exact p < 0.05).

According to the study findings, it was concluded that there are factors that influence quality of medication management and if not addressed, these can adversely affect the patient. Study recommendations were that more nurses be trained in paediatric nursing and deployed to their area of specialization to decrease the heavy workload and ensure quality medication administration. It is further recommended that standards of quality care and procedure manuals on medication management should be developed and made available to the health care workers.

Keywords: Medication, Medication errors, Medication management, Nursing, Caregiver, Quality Medication management.