Development and evaluation of tools to improve pediatric medication administration by parents
Final Report Abstract
Most pediatric medication errors are caused by improper medication administration by parents and involve liquid medications. As liquid medications challenge parents due to weight-based dosing, age-based thresholds and contraindications, and complex measurements, more comprehensible supportive instruments to improve pediatric medication administration by parents are needed. My project therefore aimed at developing two instruments to support parents administering liquid pediatric medications: a leaflet with information on liquid pediatric medications and a dose calculator that enables the correct calculation of dose and frequency of pediatric medications based on age and weight information. Both instruments were pretested, optimized, and piloted in a three‐project process. During project 1, I developed prototype versions of the leaflet and the dose calculator. Both instruments included newly created, standardized texts based on recommendations and researched drug information. However, to effectively support parents and caregivers, those instruments had to be evaluated with the target population. Hence, both instruments were qualitatively evaluated with parents during semi-structured interviews within project 2. Project 2 aimed at gathering information on usability and comprehensibility of the leaflet and calculator during the development process to confirm the validity of the general approach. Participating parents were mostly very satisfied with both instruments and assessed them as very clear and easy to understand. Suggestions, comments and feedback collected during those interviews resulted in small content and layout adaptation that increased comprehension and usability of the final leaflet and dose calculator versions. Project 3 aimed to assess both instruments’ concept and potential effect on parent’s drug knowledge in comparison with common drug information during a pilot study. Thereby, both instruments, the leaflet and the dose calculator, improved parents’ drug knowledge compared to common drug information. Furthermore, parents were very satisfied and preferred both instruments to common drug information. Overall, the structured development process including the qualitative evaluation helped to develop two new high-quality instruments that were assessed as very clear, comprehensive, and easy-to-use by parents. Parents were very satisfied and preferred both instruments to common drug information. In addition, both developed instruments increased parents’ comprehension of information on liquid OTC medication. As all created texts were standardized, only specific information (e.g. brand name, indications, or dosing information) were specifically correlated to the used brands. Creating a leaflet and calculator for other brands and active pharmaceutical ingredients would therefore require only minor changes. Furthermore, both instruments were designed and developed to enable an automatic generation in an electronic system (e.g. web-based, smart phone application, or patient portal) in the future. The generic layout thereby allows for the integration of all required database information. Those features and possibilities in combination with the results of my projects enable both instruments’ potential to reduce liquid medication administration errors in the ambulatory sector by parents.
Publications
- Entwicklung einer Broschüre und eines Dosisrechners zur Unterstützung der Verabreichung von flüssigen Peroralia in der ambulanten pädiatrischen Versorgung in den USA. Krankenhauspharmazie 2017;38:113
Send AFJ, Ancker JS, Abramson E
- Entwicklung einer Broschüre und eines Dosisrechners zur Unterstützung der Verabreichung von flüssigen Peroralia in der ambulanten pädiatrischen Versorgung in den USA. 5th conference for drug information. February 3rd – 4th, 2017. Cologne
Send AFJ, Ancker JS, Abramson E
