Exploring Pakistani Physicians' Knowledge and Practices Regarding High Alert Medications: Findings and Implications
Introduction: While many low-middle income countries (LMICs), including Pakistan, try and ensure patient safety within available resources, there are considerable concerns with medication use. Unsafe and inappropriate medication use, especially high alert medications (HAMs), is one of the important...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2022-03-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Pharmacology |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphar.2022.744038/full |
| _version_ | 1819320319639289856 |
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| author | Zia Ul Mustafa Zia Ul Mustafa Shahzaib Haroon Naeem Aslam Ahsan Saeed Muhammad Salman Khezar Hayat Naureen Shehzadi Khalid Hussain Amer Hayat Khan |
| author_facet | Zia Ul Mustafa Zia Ul Mustafa Shahzaib Haroon Naeem Aslam Ahsan Saeed Muhammad Salman Khezar Hayat Naureen Shehzadi Khalid Hussain Amer Hayat Khan |
| author_sort | Zia Ul Mustafa |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Introduction: While many low-middle income countries (LMICs), including Pakistan, try and ensure patient safety within available resources, there are considerable concerns with medication use. Unsafe and inappropriate medication use, especially high alert medications (HAMs), is one of the important factors compromising patient safety and quality of care. Besides economic loss, HAMs contribute to greater morbidity, hospitalization, and mortality. Physicians as key members of the provision of healthcare are expected to be well aware of the administration and regulations surrounding HAMs. However, the current status is unknown in Pakistan. Consequently, the objectives of this study were to evaluate the knowledge of Pakistani physicians about the administration, regulation, and practices related to HAMs. This builds on our recently published study with nurses.Methods: An online cross-sectional study design was used, and data were gathered from the physicians throughout Pakistan using previously used self-administered questionnaires during a period of 5 months (January 1 to May 30, 2021). All data were entered and analyzed using SPSS 22 for Windows.Results: Physicians (847) who provided consent were enrolled in the study. Most physicians (62.2%) were male, aged between 25 and 30 years (75.2%) and had 2- to 5-year work experience (50.9%). About 27% were working in the emergency departments. The median (IQR) knowledge score for HAMs administration and regulation was 5 (3) and 5 (2), respectively. About 46.4% of respondents were found to have moderate knowledge about HAMs; increasing age, work experience, and higher qualifications were significantly associated (p < 0.05) with better HAMs knowledge. Around 58% had good practices relating to HAMs during their routine work. Median practice scores increased significantly (p < 0.05) with age, work experience, and postgraduate qualification.Conclusion: Most Pakistani physicians possess moderate knowledge about HAMs administration and regulations. However, their practices relating to the HAMs administration and regulations are typically sub-optimal. Consequently, HAMs awareness needs to be improved by including course content in the current curriculum, provision of hospital-based continuous training programs about patient safety and care, and establishment of multi-disciplinary health care teams, including board-certified pharmacists and specialized nurses, for the effective execution of medication use process in Pakistani hospitals in the future. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-24T11:17:42Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-89fe87077e644728a58e7b9766cab1e5 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1663-9812 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-24T11:17:42Z |
| publishDate | 2022-03-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Pharmacology |
| spelling | doaj.art-89fe87077e644728a58e7b9766cab1e52022-12-21T16:58:19ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Pharmacology1663-98122022-03-011310.3389/fphar.2022.744038744038Exploring Pakistani Physicians' Knowledge and Practices Regarding High Alert Medications: Findings and ImplicationsZia Ul Mustafa0Zia Ul Mustafa1Shahzaib Haroon2Naeem Aslam3Ahsan Saeed4Muhammad Salman5Khezar Hayat6Naureen Shehzadi7Khalid Hussain8Amer Hayat Khan9Discipline of Clinical Pharmacy, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia, George Town, MalaysiaDepartment of Pharmacy Services, District Headquarter (DHQ) Hospital, Pakpattan, PakistanDepartment of Medicine, Faisalabad Medical University, Faisalabad, PakistanDepartment of Surgery and Allied, District Headquarter Hospital (DHQ), Pakpattan, PakistanDepartment of Surgery and Allied, DHQ Teaching Hospital, Sahiwal, PakistanDepartment of Pharmacy, The University of Lahore, Lahore, PakistanInstitute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Veterinary and AnimalSciences, Lahore, PakistanCollege of Pharmacy, Punjab University, Lahore, PakistanCollege of Pharmacy, Punjab University, Lahore, PakistanDiscipline of Clinical Pharmacy, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia, George Town, MalaysiaIntroduction: While many low-middle income countries (LMICs), including Pakistan, try and ensure patient safety within available resources, there are considerable concerns with medication use. Unsafe and inappropriate medication use, especially high alert medications (HAMs), is one of the important factors compromising patient safety and quality of care. Besides economic loss, HAMs contribute to greater morbidity, hospitalization, and mortality. Physicians as key members of the provision of healthcare are expected to be well aware of the administration and regulations surrounding HAMs. However, the current status is unknown in Pakistan. Consequently, the objectives of this study were to evaluate the knowledge of Pakistani physicians about the administration, regulation, and practices related to HAMs. This builds on our recently published study with nurses.Methods: An online cross-sectional study design was used, and data were gathered from the physicians throughout Pakistan using previously used self-administered questionnaires during a period of 5 months (January 1 to May 30, 2021). All data were entered and analyzed using SPSS 22 for Windows.Results: Physicians (847) who provided consent were enrolled in the study. Most physicians (62.2%) were male, aged between 25 and 30 years (75.2%) and had 2- to 5-year work experience (50.9%). About 27% were working in the emergency departments. The median (IQR) knowledge score for HAMs administration and regulation was 5 (3) and 5 (2), respectively. About 46.4% of respondents were found to have moderate knowledge about HAMs; increasing age, work experience, and higher qualifications were significantly associated (p < 0.05) with better HAMs knowledge. Around 58% had good practices relating to HAMs during their routine work. Median practice scores increased significantly (p < 0.05) with age, work experience, and postgraduate qualification.Conclusion: Most Pakistani physicians possess moderate knowledge about HAMs administration and regulations. However, their practices relating to the HAMs administration and regulations are typically sub-optimal. Consequently, HAMs awareness needs to be improved by including course content in the current curriculum, provision of hospital-based continuous training programs about patient safety and care, and establishment of multi-disciplinary health care teams, including board-certified pharmacists and specialized nurses, for the effective execution of medication use process in Pakistani hospitals in the future.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphar.2022.744038/fullmedicationphysicianserrorsawarenessadministrationregulation |
| spellingShingle | Zia Ul Mustafa Zia Ul Mustafa Shahzaib Haroon Naeem Aslam Ahsan Saeed Muhammad Salman Khezar Hayat Naureen Shehzadi Khalid Hussain Amer Hayat Khan Exploring Pakistani Physicians' Knowledge and Practices Regarding High Alert Medications: Findings and Implications Frontiers in Pharmacology medication physicians errors awareness administration regulation |
| title | Exploring Pakistani Physicians' Knowledge and Practices Regarding High Alert Medications: Findings and Implications |
| title_full | Exploring Pakistani Physicians' Knowledge and Practices Regarding High Alert Medications: Findings and Implications |
| title_fullStr | Exploring Pakistani Physicians' Knowledge and Practices Regarding High Alert Medications: Findings and Implications |
| title_full_unstemmed | Exploring Pakistani Physicians' Knowledge and Practices Regarding High Alert Medications: Findings and Implications |
| title_short | Exploring Pakistani Physicians' Knowledge and Practices Regarding High Alert Medications: Findings and Implications |
| title_sort | exploring pakistani physicians knowledge and practices regarding high alert medications findings and implications |
| topic | medication physicians errors awareness administration regulation |
| url | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphar.2022.744038/full |
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