Nurses opinion on the negative attributes of polypharmacy in patient safety, in Ajman, UAE

ABSTRACT

The negative attributes of polypharmacy should be known by nurses while reviewing and administering medications. We studied the nurses' opinion on the negative attributes of polypharmacy. 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%] among the negative effects of polypharmacy. No difference was observed in the opinions between male and female nurses or among nurses of varying duration of 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. There is a lacuna in the knowledge about ill effects of polypharmacy among nurses, which can be filled in by Continuing educational programs and workshops