Analysis of medication administration safety in hospital settings

Aim: The aim of this study was to assess medication administration safety from the perspective of nurses working in standard inpatient care units at a large regional teaching hospital in Slovakia. Design: A cross-sectional study. Methods: For data collection, we used the validated Patient Safety Assessment in Medication Administration (ASPAM) tool to detect risk-generating conditions for the occurrence of adverse drug events in nursing practice. The sample consisted of 211 nurses from a selected teaching hospital in the Slovak Republic. For data analysis, we used descriptive and inferential statistical methods. Results: The mean ASPAM score was 4.30 ± 0.39, indicating generally high adherence to medication safety practices. However, the overall Positivity Index (52.29%) suggested a low quality of safe medication practices. The lowest adherence was detected in the domains “Right patient” and “Right time”. Nurses with ≥ 20 years of experience reported significantly lower adherence, while nurses in surgical units demonstrated significantly higher adherence in several domains. Nurses’ age was a statistically significant negative predictor of adherence to safe medication practices across multiple domains. Conclusion: This study revealed gaps in nurses’ adherence to safe medication administration practices which may compromise patient safety and the quality of nursing care.