An Audit on Intravenous Drug Preparation and Administration in Various Departments of a Tertiary Care Hospital

Background: Intravenous administrations have a high incidence of errors but there is limited evidence of associated factors or error severity.

Objective: To evaluate and categorise the attentiveness and negligence of nursing staff during the administration of intravenous drugs to the patients in order to reduce the medication errors.

Methodology: This was a prospective, descriptive audit done in a hospital setting where 19 intravenous drugs were taken into consideration and their dilution parameters like the name and volume of diluents used were collected in a data collection form by verbally interviewing the nurse in-charge of preparing and administering their dilutions to patients admitted in eight different wards of the hospital. The results were categorised into 6 categories and compared to the standard dilution parameters.

Results: Emergency was the only location where nurses reported that they were aware of all the dilutions involved in the study. Nurses from wards were not aware of many dilutions while very few drugs were out of nurses knowledge in ICUs. Majority of drugs were administrated in a proper way i.e. appropriate volume and diluent type as well. Diluents and their volumes were appropriately (category I) administered to patients in ICU’s when compared to general wards.

Conclusion: There is a need to formulate a standard dilution protocol and training programmes to acknowledge the staff regarding volume and proper diluents to minimise the haphazard dilution techniques and medication errors in the hospital.