Assessment of Nurses' Performance in Implementation of Medical Prescriptions at Pediatric Critical Care Settings

Background: Medical prescription is a physician's order for the preparation and
administration of a drug or device for a pediatric patient. It is considered as a potent way of
communication and collaboration between health care providers. Aim: The aim of this study
was to assess nurses' performance in implementation of medical prescriptions at pediatric
critical care settings. Research design: A descriptive explanatory design used to conduct this
study. Setting: The study was conducted at pediatric critical care settings namely: Neonatal
intensive care unit, Pediatric intensive care units and Emergency unit at Children's Hospital
affiliated to Ain Shams University Hospitals. Subjects: A Convenient sample of 60 nurses
who are working at the above mentioned settings regardless their characteristics. Data
collection tools: involved; Pre-designed interview questionnaire sheet to gather data related
to characteristics of the studied nurses and their knowledge about medical prescriptions,
Attitude–type rating scale, Assessment sheet for the medical prescriptions and Assessment
sheet for the studied nurses' documentation related to the implementation of medical
prescriptions. Results: The results of the study revealed that, Х͞
+SD of the studied nurses
age was (33.17±7.30), most of them were females, almost the majority of them had
satisfactory total knowledge about medical prescriptions, more than three quarters of them
had total positive attitude towards the implementation of medical prescriptions and about two
thirds of medical prescriptions evaluated by the researcher were complete. Conclusion: The
studied nurses' total knowledge was satisfactory, they had positive attitude and poor
documentation related to implementation of medical prescriptions. Recommendation:
Provide continuous education program for nurses working at pediatric critical care settings
about medical prescriptions importance, implementation, and documentation.