Instruments for Measuring Healthcare Professionals’ Medication Safety Competence: A Scoping Review

Christoph Stephan,1 Doris Kloor,1 Viktoria Sophie Wurmbach,2 Cornelia Mahler1 1Department of Nursing Science, Institute of Health Sciences, University Hospital Tuebingen, Tuebingen, Baden-Wuerttemberg, Germany; 2Internal Medicine IX - Department of Clinical Pharmacology and Pharmacoepidemiology (Cooperation Unit Clinical Pharmacy), Medical Faculty Heidelberg/Heidelberg University Hospital (Heidelberg University), Heidelberg, GermanyCorrespondence: Christoph Stephan, Email [email protected]: Elderly patients with chronic diseases often use several drugs (polypharmacy). The more drugs a patient uses, the greater the risk of medication errors. To ensure a safe medication process, healthcare professionals must have a high level of medication safety competence (MSC). Hence, instruments are needed to measure healthcare professionals’ MSC and identify areas where improvement is required. A scoping review was conducted to obtain a comprehensive overview of existing instruments. The scoping review was carried out in accordance with the JBI methodology for scoping reviews and in line with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR). An a priori protocol was registered on Open Science Framework https://osf.io/73dmq. The search, performed in January 2024 in six databases, yielded 3740 results, duplicates were removed and 2499 titles and abstracts were screened. Full text screening of 28 articles resulted in the inclusion and analysis of 15 articles. A total of six instruments were identified, all instruments were designed for nurses or nursing students. However, no instrument to assess, eg physicians’ or pharmacists’ MSC was identified. Five of the six instruments were used in clinical setting and three in educational setting. The Medication Safety Competence Scale (MSCS) and the Medication Safety Scale cover the multidimensionality of MSC. The MSCS’s psychometric properties were considered acceptable. Thus, the MSCS can be used to assess nurses MSC in clinical and educational settings.Keywords: patient safety, competence assessment, nurses, physicians, pharmacists