Michelle Doas
Chatham University, USA
Posters & Accepted Abstracts: J Nurs Care
Statement of the Problem: Safe and effective medication administration on a psychiatric unit can pose many challenges. One main challenge is maintaining positive interpersonal interactions with patients during medication administration. Current studies investigating the effectiveness and outcomes of interpersonal interactions during structured, inpatient psychiatric medication administration are minimal. The majority of observational studies in this area are rooted in assessing processes aimed at safe and effective delivery of medications based upon basic principles of medication administration. Methodology: An unstructured observational design was implemented in order to observe medication administration on three different inpatient psychiatric nursing units over a three month period. Theoretical Underpinnings: Patients in an inpatient psychiatric setting are often receiving new medications or dosage adjustments of medications in order to minimize psychiatric symptoms. As a result, the medication nurse is in a key position to educate, display understanding and empathy, and build a therapeutic rapport with patients. Education and therapeutic interpersonal interactions are essential since patients often become non-compliant with prescribed medications as a result of side effects, lack of knowledge, or a sheer adversity to clinically needing medication. Findings: On a consistent basis, nurses displaying a calm manner and tone of voice were notably more effective in increasing both medication compliance and positive nurse-patient interactions during medication administration. On the contrary, select patients left the medication administration area angry and were non-compliant with medications when perceiving the nurse as abrupt, abrasive, or negative.
Email: MDoas@Chatham.edu
Journal of Nursing & Care received 4230 citations as per Google Scholar report
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