Insights into the Nurse's Knowledge and Clinical experience of Polypharmacy in Ajman, UAE.

The specter of polypharmacy is an ever-increasing problem. Nurses play a functional role in assisting patients to understand the dangers of polypharmacy. Nurse’s knowledge and their experience of polypharmacy in their nursing practice are determined in the study. Nurses working in Gulf Medical College Hospital and Research Centre, Ajman, United Arab Emirates participated in this cross-sectional study (March-May 2011). A Self-administered structured questionnaire was used to obtain data. Chi-square test was performed to find the association between variables under study using PSAW software. A total of 105 nurses participated (92 female nurses; 13 male nurses). The definition of polypharmacy was correctly identified by only 45.7% nurses. 66% identified elderly population as the common age group exposed to polypharmacy; while 22.9% nurses opined that it is common in all age groups. 66.7% of the nurses acknowledge their non awareness of rational and irrational polypharmacy. The common reason for practice of polypharmacy was use of multiple drugs to manage multiple disease conditions. The knowledge of polypharmacy is inadequate among the nurses though they have experience of polypharmacy. Working knowledge of rational polypharmacy is essential among the nursing community to reduce the practice of polypharmacy.

Nurses opinion on the attributes of polypharmacy in patient safety

Nurses play a functional role in preventing drug related problems. They need to be aware of the dangers of polypharmacy while reviewing patient medications. We studied the nurses' opinion on the diverse effects of polypharmacy in the hospital setting. Nurses working in a tertiary care teaching hospital participated in this cross-sectional study, conducted over 3 months, by responding to a self-administered questionnaire. Chi-square test was used to analyze association between socio-demographic characteristics and items in the study. A value of P<0.05 was considered statistically significant. Increased drug interactions scored the highest [98.1%], followed by increased adverse drug effects [81.9%], and increase in financial burden [69.5%] among the negative effects of polypharmacy. 61% of the respondents felt that polypharmacy increased therapeutic effect in polypathology. No difference was observed in the opinion between male and female nurses or among varying nursing experience. Nurses with 5-10 years of experience opined increase in non-compliance to prescribed medication regimen and increase in financial burden also as negative attributes. Nurses pointed out both positive and negative implications of polypharmacy. Training programs such as continuing nursing education and workshops can be planned to translate this knowledge into practice in their routine nursing practice.