LAUSR

Aim The aim of this paper is to discuss a research study which examined data collected on Medication Management of the Nursing Instrument for Quality Assurance – Inpatients Children’s Services (NIQA-C) in order to describe current practice and evaluate the effectiveness of the NIQA-C instrument within children’s inpatient services. Methods Data collected from routine audits concerned with the administration, omission and safety checks of medication management of the NIQA-C instrument was collated. Data was analysed using descriptive statistics within the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) the aim of which was to reflect current practice and identify specific emerging trends within the scores for medication management within children’s inpatient services. Data was collected 26 times over a 5 year period 2012–2016. Ethical approval for this research study was received from both the University and the children’s services centre. Results Findings showed that high levels of risk were demonstrated during the process of medication administrations in terms of assessing patient’s allergy status. Additionally medium to high levels of risk were demonstrated; while observing medication administration the registered nurse left medication on the patients locker for administration at a later date and in terms of the correct procedure being followed for administration of medications (same nurses involved in the checking process administered medications at the bedside). Conclusion Recommendations for implementation of best practice guidelines will be discussed. The outcomes of the study will benefit children’s nurses to increase their awareness of the safety of medication management and ensure that evidence based research can be applied to practice. Moreover, the study outcomes will also benefit children admitted to hospital ensuring receipt of safe medication related practices.