Research on preparation techniques for drugs administered through catheters by intensive care nursing

Abstract

The goals of the research were to assess the pharmaceutical form of medicinal preparations administered through catheters and identify the profile of errors that occur during their preparation. This is a cross-sectional study of an observational nature, conducted in an intensive care unit with a sample of 350 doses of medication prepared by 56 nursing technicians. Data collection occurred in March 2010. The results showed that 92% of the drugs were in the solid form. The errors were divided into two categories for liquid forms: dilution and mixing, and grinding was added as an error possibility for a solid form. The error rates were greater than 40% in all categories. The conclusions are that grinding can compromise the therapeutic effect of coated controlled-release tablets, not diluting syrups may contribute to the obstruction of catheters, and mixing medication during grinding may increase the risk of drug interactions.